Solana has moved beyond being known merely as a fast blockchain. In 2025, it is now leading in revenue generation, with figures that show it has overtaken Ethereum in protocol fees.
The primary driver is Pump.fun, a memecoin platform that is reshaping how value circulates within Solana. Yet, Orca remains the largest source of daily trading volume.
Together, these platforms reveal how Solana is building a serious financial engine, even if memecoins and speculative trading currently fuel it.
Solana is Overtaking Ethereum in Revenue and Onchain Activity
Ethereum’s reputation as the fee king of crypto is now being questioned. Solana, known for its low-cost and high-speed infrastructure, is recording higher protocol fees than Ethereum. Pump.fun, a platform that allows users to launch tokens instantly, has collected $294 million in fees this year.
In comparison, Ethereum has generated $249 million over the same period. For the past nine weeks, Solana has continuously outperformed Ethereum in weekly fee revenue.
This shift is not solely due to user experience or novelty. It reflects a meaningful change in user preference.
Solana’s design allows for a smoother trading experience, especially for smaller traders who cannot afford Ethereum’s fluctuating gas fees. As a result, projects like Pump.fun have found a home on Solana, where they can operate efficiently and at scale.
Solana’s technical capacity has enabled it to process a large volume of transactions without performance issues. According to data from VanEck, memecoins made up 44% of decentralised exchange volume on Solana in January 2025 and 35% in April.
Although this suggests a high dependence on one category of assets, it also shows that Solana can handle volatility and heavy usage. The declining percentage may also indicate diversification as new applications enter the ecosystem.
This performance has not gone unnoticed. Traders, developers, and analysts are now paying closer attention to Solana.
While Ethereum continues to support large-scale applications and institutional activity, its speed and fees remain a limiting factor for newer, lighter applications. Solana’s rise shows that users and creators value flexibility and responsiveness, especially during speculative trading periods.
Community members have also argued that Solana has simply found the right product-market fit. It has become the preferred platform for memecoin trading, not because of marketing, but because it works.
This success has opened the door for Solana to be considered more than a niche chain. It is now being seen as a platform capable of hosting the next generation of decentralised applications across multiple sectors.
Revenue Growth Comes from Pump.fun, Orca and a Maturing DEX Ecosystem
Solana’s rising revenue comes from a growing range of decentralised exchanges. At the centre is Pump.fun, a platform created in January 2024 that lets users mint and trade memecoins with minimal effort.
So far, it has generated $294 million in protocol fees and continues to lead in week-to-week growth. This single platform has brought more revenue to Solana than Ethereum has earned in the same period.
Despite Pump.fun’s impact, the largest share of daily decentralised trading volume still belongs to Orca.
According to Data from Coingecko, with over $485 million in 24-hour volume and 1,380 trading pairs, Orca remains the most active DEX on Solana.
Its top trading pair alone, KMNO/EPJFW, has contributed more than $127 million in daily volume. Orca’s infrastructure and liquidity options make it a core part of Solana’s trading landscape.
Meteora and Stabble also play an important role. Meteora holds a 22.5% market share with over 3,400 trading pairs and receives more than 660,000 visits each month.
It has become a reliable venue for both stable assets and volatile tokens. Stabble focuses on stablecoin liquidity and brings in $194 million daily, accounting for 15% of the market share.
Raydium, which runs two versions, including a concentrated liquidity model (CLMM), continues to support a wide range of coins.
It offers over 41,000 trading pairs and attracts over 1.8 million monthly visits. While Raydium’s fee volume may be smaller than Orca’s, its overall liquidity and presence keep it as an essential contributor to Solana’s revenue.
PumpSwap, the dedicated DEX for Pump.fun tokens, adds $58 million in daily volume to the mix. Although smaller than the larger exchanges, it remains the fourth most used by pair count and an important part of the memecoin ecosystem.
Its growth reflects how meme-based platforms are starting to take over meaningful slices of the broader trading environment.
According to VanEck’s April report, memecoins still dominate Solana’s activity. If one excludes SOL, stablecoins, and liquid staking tokens, memecoins accounted for 99% of Solana’s volume in January and 95% in April.
That degree of dominance is unlikely to last, but for now, it explains the extraordinary revenue generation.
This raises sustainability questions. What happens when memecoin hype fades? Analysts suggest Solana could then shift toward other applications such as perpetual futures, gaming, or institutional-grade DeFi.
The community already hints at what is next. Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana’s co-founder, recently encouraged users to build better perpetual DEXs in response to requests for more advanced platforms.
Efforts to address centralisation also continue. Although Solana remains fast and reliable, decentralisation critics have long pointed to the concentration of validators and control.
The core team is working on delegation mechanisms to improve this, although concerns still exist. For long-term success, Solana will need to balance speed with decentralised governance to maintain credibility.
Despite these concerns, Solana is entering a new phase. The decline in memecoin share from 44% to 35% suggests an ecosystem that is beginning to stabilise.
If Solana can continue to support newer apps while reducing its reliance on speculative assets, its revenue will become more predictable and sustainable.
Conclusion
Solana is no longer playing catch-up to Ethereum. It is now ahead in protocol fee revenue, driven by explosive growth from Pump.fun and continued leadership from Orca.
This shift reflects not only technical capability but also product-market fit. Users are choosing Solana because it offers what they want, speed, efficiency, and freedom to build.
While its revenue is currently driven by memecoins, the infrastructure now exists for Solana to support the next wave of decentralised applications. Its success is not guaranteed, but the momentum is undeniable.