Solana says it processed a document 5.2 billion non-vote transactions in August, a complete it described as 19% above July.
The milestone arrived with a sharply totally different measure: 21Shares calculated that gross community income, together with charges and ideas generated by community use, fell to $141 million within the first half of 2026 from $1.09 billion a yr earlier.
The figures cowl totally different intervals. The transaction rely captures the month ended Aug. 31, whereas the income comparability covers the six months via June. Collectively, they present exercise accelerating after a half-year by which Solana generated far much less charge and tip income than throughout the memecoin increase a yr earlier.
Why Solana’s exercise and income diverged
Non-vote transactions take away validators’ consensus messages from the rely, giving a cleaner view of software exercise. The metric can nonetheless embody profitable and failed transactions, and it measures neither distinctive customers nor worth transferred. Figuring out transfers, trades and different actions requires program-level evaluation, based on documentation from Dune and Token Terminal.
21Shares traced the income decline to weaker competitors for blockspace. It stated precedence charges and Jito ideas, additional funds routed via Solana’s transaction-ordering infrastructure, produced 95% of H1 2025 gross income, cut up 40% and 55%. Memecoin merchants paid these fees to maneuver forward in crowded blocks; that high-value charge stream contracted because the frenzy cooled.
The buying and selling combine modified as effectively. The agency stated memecoins fell from 40% of Solana spot buying and selling quantity in H1 2025 to 16% in H1 2026, whereas stablecoin swaps rose from 6% to 19%. 21Shares stated the classes changing memecoins generated much less income per commerce.
A like-for-like quarterly comparability helps the identical pattern. A DeFi Growth Corp. shareholder letter filed with the SEC put Solana’s Q2 community income at $51 million, down 43% from the primary quarter and 81% yr over yr, whereas the median transaction charge was $0.00043.
Shorter-term validator charge information improved by late August. Solana Compass reported {that a} seven-day common reached about 9,200 SOL per day, greater than 80% above three months earlier. That SOL-denominated determine contains precedence charges and Jito ideas, whereas the 21Shares measure covers six-month gross income in {dollars}, leaving the 2 unsuitable for direct comparability.
Validator economics lengthen past these fees. Underneath Solana’s charge guidelines, half of the bottom charge goes to the block producer and half is burned, whereas the complete precedence charge goes to the validator. Validators can even earn commissions on inflationary staking rewards.
For SOL, the throughput document is operationally constructive. Financial seize nonetheless depends upon what customers pay for blockspace, how a lot SOL is burned or staked, and whether or not rising stablecoin, DeFi and cost exercise produces sturdy charges. Transaction rely alone stays a weak proxy for validator earnings or token demand.
