Solana processed about 162 million transactions a day in the first half of 2025, the busiest spell in the network’s five-year history. New figures from developer platform Helius show activity running at four times the chain’s 2021 peak.
The jump follows upgrades that cut fees and raised capacity, and comes as more consumer apps test Solana for payments, phone plans and simple transfers.
Helius counted more than 29 billion transfers from January to June. Its review notes that average fees stayed below two-tenths of a cent, helping wallets climb to roughly 2.4 million active users a day. The public Solana Explorer confirms the higher traffic without any sharp rise in costs.
Stable-coin use is rising alongside raw transaction numbers. Data from analytics site Artemis show the USDC supply on Solana has grown by about $6 billion since February. Cheap swaps appear to be pulling traders back: decentralised exchanges on the chain now handle close to $800 million in spot volume each day, up from $450 million at the start of the year.
Helius links part of the growth to real-world pilots. Visa has expanded its USDC settlement tests to more regions, and Helium Mobile’s low-cost phone service now runs payments and airtime credits directly on Solana. Both projects rely on fast finality and near-zero fees, two features the network has kept even under heavier load.
Further upgrades are in the pipeline. ZK Compression, due later this summer, should reduce data needs for apps and non-fungible tokens. Firedancer, a new validator client scheduled for testing by year-end, aims to double throughput again while lowering hardware costs for node operators.
Solana still competes with Ethereum’s Layer-2 networks for developers and liquidity, yet its stable fees and growing list of mainstream trials give it momentum. If the next set of improvements land on time and demand holds, analysts say the chain could keep its high-use streak into 2026.
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