Solana Takes the Lead in L1 Activity as Ethereum Dominates in DeFi

Solana has been gaining ground on Ethereum in Layer 1 activity, surpassing its rival in transaction volume, active users, and fee revenue. Despite this, Ethereum still holds the majority of total value locked and stablecoin liquidity.

The rivalry between Solana and Ethereum has shifted from a direct competition to two distinct models. Ethereum is focused on settlement and custody, while Solana leads in trading and execution.

Since 2025, Solana's developer community has been shipping through the winter, maturing ecosystems like Jupiter and Jito, and increasing DEX volume. In contrast, Ethereum spent this period executing its own plan, but discovered that it had a hole in it: the Dencun upgrade introduced blob space and cut L2 costs, supercharging rollup adoption while gutting fee burn.

Solana now generates over $1 million in chain fees per day, while the major Ethereum L2s combined generate under $200,000. This suggests that Solana is monetizing every swap on a single unified ledger, while Ethereum's direct income is shrinking.