21Shares reported that Solana generated more than $2.8B in annual revenue

On-chain data revealed that Solana generated approximately $2.85 billion in annual revenue, primarily driven by trading platform activity. A new report from 21Shares revealed that Solana has averaged about $240 million in monthly revenue between October 2024 and September 2025. 

Solana’s monthly revenue peaked at $616 million in January during the memecoin frenzy led by tokens like Official Trump. After the Solana boom subsided, the network continued to record monthly revenues of between $150 million and $250 million.

Solana trading platforms generate the most revenue

Solana’s revenue flows from decentralized exchanges (DEXs), memecoins, trading tools, launchpads, borrowing and lending protocols, wallets, DePIN, and AI-driven applications. The network’s validators also earn revenue from fees on transactions.

21Shares reported that trading platforms generated the most revenue across the ecosystem, accounting for 30%, nearly $1.12 billion. The firm noted that apps like Photon and Axiom drove the most revenue to the ecosystem, generating about $260 million in a single month at the height of the memecoin frenzy of late 2024 and early 2025.

According to the report, Solana surpassed Ethereum in revenue over the past year, driven by its architecture, which is capable of handling thousands of transactions per second at costs below $0.01. 21Shares also noted that it generated revenue comparable to that of well-known companies such as Palantir and Robinhood.

On-chain data shows that Ethereum’s monthly revenue averaged less than $10 million between 2019 and 2020, which is four to five years after its launch. At the moment, Solana is generating 20-30x more average revenue on a monthly basis. The report also noted that Solana outpaced Ethereum’s monthly early revenue by more than 50x during some months.

21Shares noted that Solana’s efficiency and low fees have helped the network attract between 1.2 and 1.5 million daily active addresses. SOL’s daily active addresses are three times Ethereum’s at the same point in its lifecycle.

According to the report, the revenue between October 2022 and September 2023 stood at just $13 million. The low figure reflected the network’s early-stage development and market skepticism in the wake of outages, the collapse of FTX, and regulatory scrutiny. 

Twelve months later, SOL revenue has surged past $2.85 billion, representing a 220-fold increase. 21Shares argued that the increase in revenue signals a fundamental shift in Solana’s maturity and value capture.

Spot SOL ETFs await SEC approval

The Switzerland-based asset management company has transitioned to become one of the largest providers of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs). 21Shares launched the world’s first SOL ETP in Europe in 2021. 

The firm also reported that Solana’s growth reframed its role in the eyes of institutional capital, with nearly $4 billion in SOL currently being held on public company balance sheets. Other companies are undertaking other treasury initiatives, including Forward Industries, Pantera Capital, and Brera Holdings. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission is also expected to make a decision on U.S. spot SOL ETFs this month, which 21Shares believes could further unlock access to the ecosystem. Filings from firms such as Fidelity, VanEck, Grayscale, Canary, and Franklin Templeton have deadlines set for this Friday, while applications from 21Shares and Bitwise are scheduled for review on October 16. Polymarket revealed that there’s a 99% chance of a SOL ETF getting approved by the end of the year.

According to the report, the total value locked in Solana DeFi is nearly 13 billion. The network’s stablecoin volume has surged by 6x year-over-year. Solana also recorded more than $500 million in tokenized real-world assets (RWA). 21Shares argued that the SOL’s use cases point to a network with real product-market fit and growing demand from users. 

21Shares believes that Solana upgrades, such as the Firedancer validator client, which aims to achieve 1 million transactions per second by 2025, could lead to further growth in the network. The already approved Alpenglow also reduces SOL finality to below 200 milliseconds.

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