Key Insights
- Pump.fun, a gamified token launch platform, generated $48M in fees during Q2, driving Raydium’s daily trading volume up 77% to $867M.
- Solana Actions & Blinks launched by Dialect and Solana Foundation enable seamless in-app transactions, starting with X (Twitter).
- Institutional adoption grows with PayPal expanding PYUSD to Solana and Stripe announcing Solana payment support.
- Network congestion from meme coin activity and spam transactions was mitigated by Agave’s stake-weighted QoS update, introducing structural demand for SOL.
Ecosystem Highlights
DeFi
- TVL: $4.5B (ranked #4), down 9% in USD but up 26% in SOL terms.
Top Performers:
- Raydium: Daily volume rose 77% to $867M; TVL hit $991M (+46%).
- Kamino Lend: Launched KMNO token; TVL dropped 26% to $942M.
- Meme coin mania: Pump.fun spurred trading, with WIF, MEW, and GME among top-traded tokens.
Stablecoins
- Market cap: $3.1B (+8%), led by USDC ($2.2B).
- PYUSD Expansion: PayPal leveraged Solana’s token extensions (e.g., confidential transfers) for its stablecoin rollout ($75M circulating supply).
NFTs
- Trading volume: Fell 56% QoQ to $3.4M daily. Magic Eden regained market share (59%), while Tensor dropped to 35%.
- Innovations: Metaplex’s Core NFT standard and MPL-404 hybrid tokens aim to boost liquidity.
Infrastructure
- ZK Compression: Light Protocol and Helius introduced this scaling solution to optimize L1 performance.
- Firedancer: Jump Crypto’s upcoming client aims to enhance network resilience (testnet launched in Q3).
Network Performance
- Daily active users: 900K (+51% QoQ).
- Transaction fees: Avg. $0.022 (+47%), still among the cheapest vs. competitors.
- Decentralization: 1,504 validators across 41 countries; Nakamoto coefficient of 2 for geography.
Financials
- SOL market cap: $68B (-25% QoQ, ranked #5).
- Total economic value: $151M (+53%), driven by fees and MEV.
- Token burns: Reduced annual inflation to 4.9% (50% of fees burned).
FAQs
Q1: What caused Solana’s network congestion in Q2?
A: Meme coin trading and Ore mining spam overwhelmed transaction queues. Agave’s stake-weighted QoS update (April) eased congestion by prioritizing staked connections.
Q2: How does ZK Compression improve Solana’s scalability?
A: It stores account data off-chain in Merkle trees, using SNARKs to compress proofs—similar to compressed NFTs but applicable to any token.
Q3: Why did PayPal choose Solana for PYUSD?
A: Low costs, high throughput, and token extensions (e.g., confidential transfers) aligned with PayPal’s privacy goals.
👉 Explore Solana’s DeFi ecosystem
👉 Learn about stake-weighted QoS
Data sourced from Messari’s State of Solana Q2 2024 Report.