Grayscale, considered one of crypto’s largest institutional asset managers, printed a analysis word on Oct. 10 calling Solana (SOL) “crypto’s monetary bazaar.”
This characterization goes effectively past the standard speed-and-throughput pitch. The report positions SOL because the class chief in customers, transactions, and charges, arguing that its person expertise, architectural moat by way of the Solana Digital Machine, and utility range create a sturdy basis for valuation.
It’s a major shift in institutional tone. Grayscale is now giving Solana the identical therapy it as soon as reserved for Ethereum as “digital oil.”
The thesis issues much less for what Grayscale believes than for what it indicators. When a serious allocator aligned with the normal finance ecosystem formalizes an funding case round a blockchain that was left for lifeless after FTX collapsed, different desks take discover.
The query is whether or not the numbers assist the narrative, or whether or not “monetary bazaar” remains to be extra metaphor than measurable actuality.
We stress-tested Grayscale’s claims in opposition to main on-chain information, developer trackers, and technical benchmarks. The course is true: Solana leads on a number of key metrics.
Nevertheless, the institutional case carries trade-offs that the report acknowledges solely in passing, and some headline figures deserve nearer scrutiny.
What Grayscale says
The report frames Solana because the standout amongst sensible contract platforms on three core fundamentals: customers, transaction quantity, and charges.
Grayscale cites roughly $425 million in month-to-month ecosystem charges, an annualized run charge above $5 billion, and factors to $1.2 trillion in year-to-date DEX quantity routed by Raydium and Jupiter.
It highlights Jupiter as the biggest DEX aggregator by quantity within the business, Pump.enjoyable’s 2 million month-to-month energetic customers, and Helium’s 1.5 million every day customers as proof of utility range.
On the developer aspect, the report notes greater than 1,000 full-time Solana builders and claims the ecosystem has grown sooner than some other sensible contract platform over the previous two years.
Pace and price obtain equal billing. Solana produces blocks each 400 milliseconds, with transactions thought-about ultimate in roughly 12 to 13 seconds.
Common transaction charges sit at $0.02, whereas median every day charges this 12 months have averaged $0.001, one-tenth of 1 cent, because of native payment markets that isolate congestion to particular high-demand purposes.
A forthcoming improve known as Alpenglow goals to cut back finality to 100 to 150 milliseconds.
Grayscale additionally attracts boundaries. It explicitly states that SOL “could also be much less appropriate as a long-term retailer of worth than Bitcoin or Ethereum,” citing larger nominal provide inflation and centralization vectors.
The report famous that Solana’s effectivity comes at the price of comparatively excessive {hardware} and bandwidth necessities, with 99% of staked SOL in information facilities and roughly 45% concentrated within the high two internet hosting suppliers.
What the numbers present
DeFiLlama exhibits Solana persistently working round 2.6 million energetic addresses within the final 24 hours and roughly 67 million on-chain transactions over the identical window, in keeping with 2025’s typical tempo.
Artemis reporting from mid-2025 highlighted that Solana matched all different layer-1 and layer-2 networks mixed on month-to-month energetic addresses, corroborating the “class chief” characterization on person rely.
Relating to charges, the “$425 million per thirty days” determine requires context. Token Terminal’s chain-level payment information for Solana present tens of tens of millions per thirty days in a number of 2025 durations, round $30 million to $40 million in latest months.
DeFiLlama exhibits present every day chain charges round $0.8 million to $1.6 million and app charges round $9 million to $13 million, collectively implying roughly $300 million to $450 million per thirty days on the latest tempo, relying on market depth.
Lots of of tens of millions per thirty days throughout busy durations is believable, however $425 million as a gradual baseline overstates the run charge. The combo between chain charges and app charges additionally issues for apples-to-apples comparisons throughout networks.
The report additionally addressed volumes. DeFiLlama’s chain dashboard exhibits Solana frequently posting multi-billion-dollar every day DEX quantity and greater than $40 billion within the final seven days, with a number of latest days topping Ethereum.
Weekly, Solana topped Ethereum’s volumes for 33 out of 42 weeks this 12 months.
Jupiter presently ranks because the business’s largest DEX aggregator by 30-day quantity, roughly $22.3 billion versus $13 billion to $14 billion for 1inch, supporting Grayscale’s declare.
For the energetic developer base, Electrical Capital’s stay tracker exhibits Solana with roughly 17,708 complete builders as of mid-October 2025, with the full-time developer base up 29.1% 12 months over 12 months and 61.7% over two years.
The ecosystem attracted 7,625 new builders in 2024, probably the most of any chain, and has added greater than 11,500 new builders 12 months to this point by mid-October 2025.
That locations Solana second solely to Ethereum in energetic builders, confirming the “giant and rising” characterization.
On finality and velocity, Chainspect experiences Solana slot time round 0.4 seconds and typical finality at roughly 12.8 seconds immediately, aligning with Grayscale’s 12- to 13-second declare.
Moreover, Helius’ technical documentation on native payment markets explains how Solana sustains excessive throughput whereas protecting median person charges in fractions of a cent, even throughout congestion.
The info directionally assist the thesis that Solana leads in energetic customers, typically leads in DEX circulation, hosts the biggest aggregator, and ranks second in builders.
The payment declare is correct throughout scorching markets however overstates the steady-state baseline.
Why establishments are warming up now
Establishments are warming to Solana as a result of the person expertise is now measurably quick, low cost, and extra predictable.
Native payment markets maintain most congestion and precedence charges localized to scorching purposes, so on a regular basis transactions keep cheap even when exercise spikes, one thing custodians and venues worth once they batch flows or settle shopper orders.
Chainspect measures roughly 0.4-second block occasions and 12.8-second finality immediately, and the Alpenglow improve targets sub-second finality, decreasing settlement danger home windows for market makers and brokers.
Reliability has improved for the reason that mainnet halt on Feb. 6, 2024, which lasted about 5 hours. But, information exhibits stronger uptime and throughput in subsequent months.
Liquidity has deepened throughout each DEX and aggregator rails, which issues for execution and hedging.
DeFiLlama exhibits Solana frequently at or close to the highest in chain-level DEX volumes. On the similar time, Jupiter ranks as the biggest DEX aggregator by 30-day quantity, giving establishments a single router into pooled liquidity throughout Raydium, Orca, Meteora, and others.
Token Terminal information additionally exhibits rising payment seize on Solana’s stack, chain plus apps, a proxy for sustained person demand that helps tighter spreads and deeper books.
Publish-FTX, the ecosystem has rebuilt credibility and infrastructure. The Artemis report already talked about means that the person base and throughput weren’t simply hype cycles.
On the product aspect, a regulated-product pipeline has emerged, with a number of spot SOL exchange-traded funds (ETFs) purposes pending earlier than the US authorities shutdown paused SEC opinions, signaling mainstream issuers’ curiosity, even when the timing has slipped.
Collectively, person traction and visual institutional wrappers decrease the perceived idiosyncratic danger that stored some desks sidelined in 2023.
The structural trade-offs
Grayscale acknowledges centralization however solely in define. Operating a high-quality validator nonetheless assumes server-class {hardware}, 12-plus cores, AVX2/512 instruction units, NVMe arrays, and 256GB-plus RAM, which raises the barrier to entry and pushes operators towards information facilities.
Solana’s efficient decentralization, measured by the Nakamoto coefficient, stood at 20 as of Apr. 16, 2025, down from a better peak, which means fewer entities would wish to collude to censor transactions than in durations when the coefficient was bigger.
Consumer range stays in transition. The Agave and Jito purchasers nonetheless dominate Solana, whereas Firedancer is progressing however has solely run in restricted or non-voting configurations, with full rollout focused for 2025.
Till Firedancer and different purchasers are broadly adopted, single-client danger persists.
Retailer-of-value headwinds stem from issuance and payment coverage. The present annual issuance ranges from 4% to five%, with a disinflationary path towards a decrease long-term goal, larger than Bitcoin’s fastened schedule and able to diluting holders absent offsetting burn.
Following SIMD-0096, solely 50% of the bottom payment is burned, and the priority-fee burn has been discontinued, weakening the burn counterweight when exercise shifts towards precedence charges.
Excessive throughput drives giant ledgers, frequent snapshots, and improve cadence.
Really useful setups embody a number of high-TBW NVMe units for accounts, ledgers, and snapshots, which raises ongoing operational prices in comparison with lighter chains.
Grayscale’s Solana thesis, which posits that quick, low cost, and sticky purposes yield sustainable community worth, holds up on the basics that matter most to establishments: energetic customers, transaction throughput, developer pipeline, and liquidity depth.
The “monetary bazaar” framing is greater than advertising, as Solana hosts a various and dense on-chain financial system that rivals or exceeds its friends on a number of dimensions.
But, the caveats matter. The $425 million month-to-month payment determine is a high-water mark, not a baseline. Centralization vectors, centered round {hardware} necessities, stake focus, and shopper range, are actual, even when they haven’t but impaired community operations.
And the store-of-value limitation Grayscale attracts is a deliberate line. SOL is a utility and hypothesis car, quite than a financial asset within the sense of Bitcoin or Ethereum.
The next milestones to look at are Alpenglow’s finality improve and Firedancer’s full deployment.
If Solana can ship sub-second finality whereas diversifying its shopper base, the institutional case strengthens. If {hardware} necessities proceed to push validators into information facilities and the Nakamoto coefficient drifts decrease, the “bazaar” dangers turning into a walled backyard.
