Solana Analysis: 2024

Introduction

In a recent Layer 1 analysis, we observed a standout trend: Solana's year-on-year (YoY) growth has outpaced most popular Layer 1 blockchains. This impressive trajectory aligns with Solana’s strong performance in 2024. The year began with a steady increase in on-chain activity, peaking in March, and maintained momentum through the widespread adoption of liquid staking and restaking protocols.

As the year comes to a close, Solana continues to lead blockchain innovation. In this report, we explore Solana’s key metrics, ecosystem developments, and notable projects, providing insights into what to expect in 2025.

YoY Growth: Leading the Pack

Price Graph

Investment Simulator: Return Comparison

Key Metrics: A Look Back at 2024

Total Value Locked (TVL)

Solana’s TVL has steadily increased throughout 2024, reaching over $9 billion in the final weeks. Although it has not yet surpassed its November 2021 high of $10 billion, Solana is on track to set new records. Jito is the largest contributor, followed by Jupiter, Raydium, and Kamino.

Transactions Per Second (TPS)

Solana consistently delivers around 1,000 TPS in the last 30 days, with peaks as high as 7,229 TPS. In theory, Solana can handle up to 65,000 TPS, and the upcoming Firedancer validator demonstrated 1 million TPS in its testnet this September. With its pre-existing high throughput and scaling through parallelism, the network is poised for even faster speeds in 2025.

Transactions

Solana's transaction count remains significantly higher than other chains. However, a notable portion of these transactions are attributed to arbitrage and NFT bots. Despite this, the number of active addresses has steadily increased, surpassing 100 million in October. New address growth has followed a similar trend.

Staking Ratio

Over 65% of Solana's circulating supply is staked, supported by more than 1,500 active validators. This ensures network security and decentralization. These numbers have remained consistent throughout the year.

Ecosystem Development

Liquid Staking

Liquid staking emerged as a cornerstone of Solana’s ecosystem in 2024. Its TVL more than doubled, growing from $12 million at the start of the year to approximately $33 million by December. Jito maintained a dominant 40–50% share, significantly enhancing capital efficiency and liquidity across the network.

Restaking

Restaking was one of 2024’s most notable innovations. Solayer launched in May, followed by Jito Restaking in October. Inspired by Ethereum’s EigenLayer, restaking is redefining security and economic efficiency on Solana. Solayer, in particular, grew from zero to $1 million in just four months.

Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs)

Vault Receipt Tokens (VRTs) are unlocking new possibilities for cryptoeconomic security. Projects like Renzo’s $ezSOL, Fragmetric’s $fragSOL, and Kyros’s $kySOL are merging staking, MEV rewards, and governance. Currently, Solana's VRT adoption is at just 0.66% of its TVL compared to Ethereum’s 20%, indicating significant growth potential. Fragmetric’s $fragSOL, with a market supply exceeding 75,000, is an early indication of the transformative potential of LRTs on Solana.

Ecosystem Growth

Payments Ecosystem

The payment ecosystem on Solana expanded significantly in 2024, driven by increased merchant adoption and integrations with Visa, PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe. Solana's stablecoin market cap grew 151% YoY to $3.8 billion, making it the fifth-largest stablecoin network. PayPal’s PYUSD reached a $332 million market cap within four months of its launch on Solana. New Solana-based debit cards, such as KAST and Fuse Pay, now enable stablecoin payments in over 100 countries.

Institutional Interest

Institutional adoption grew steadily in 2024, with financial giants like Franklin Templeton, Citibank, and Société Générale launching Solana-based projects. Tokenized treasury assets on Solana doubled to $123 million in 30 days, driven by the migration of $50 million USDY from Ethereum. Solana is now the third-largest network for tokenized treasuries, behind Ethereum ($1.6 billion) and Stellar ($422 million). Notably, Franklin Templeton plans to launch a $435 million money market fund on Solana, while Société Générale introduced the first MiCA-compliant stablecoin, EURCV, with a market cap of $37 million.

Conclusion

With its strong performance in 2024 and the growing global interest in crypto, Solana is poised for significant growth in 2025. As a leading innovator among alternative chains, the network continues to attract attention with its impressive metrics. Luganodes, a long-term partner and validator on the network, remains committed to supporting the platform's development and success.

About Luganodes

Luganodes is a world-class, Swiss-operated, non-custodial blockchain infrastructure provider that has rapidly gained recognition in the industry for offering institutional-grade services. It was born out of the Lugano Plan B Program, an initiative driven by Tether and the City of Lugano. Luganodes maintains an exceptional 99.9% uptime with round-the-clock monitoring by SRE experts. With support for 45+ PoS networks, it ranks among the top validators on Polygon, Polkadot, Sui, and Tron. Luganodes prioritizes security and compliance, holding the distinction of being one of the first staking providers to adhere to all SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and ISO 27001 standards as well as offering Chainproof insurance to institutional clients.