Scalability is one of the key challenges for most blockchain platforms. It was precisely this issue that became the weak point of first-generation networks — Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Tron. Limited throughput and high fees prevented these blockchains from operating efficiently as user activity grew.
The creators of new networks addressed these limitations and began to focus not only on security and decentralization, but also on the blockchain’s ability to process large volumes of transactions. One of the most notable examples of this approach is Solana.
Solana is considered one of the most high-performance blockchain platforms in the crypto industry. In theory, the network can process up to 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) at an average fee of less than 1 cent, making it attractive to DeFi and NFT projects.
Solana blockchain architecture
The main technological feature of Solana is the Proof-of-History (PoH)consensus mechanism. It does not replace the traditional Proof-of-Stake (PoS), but complements it, preserving staking* functionality and a high level of security for a decentralized network.
* Staking is a mechanism for participating in the operation of a blockchain based on the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, in which a user locks their tokens to support the security and stability of the network. In return, they receive rewards in the form of new tokens or a share of transaction fees.
According to researchers at the MIT Media Lab, PoH solves a fundamental problem of time synchronization in distributed systems. Instead of constantly waiting for confirmations from other nodes, the network already knows that one event occurred earlier than another. This allows significant acceleration of consensus — in Solana, it takes about 400 milliseconds.
The use of PoH allowed developers to reduce the load on the mempool*, optimize processor performance, implement transaction pre-forwarding, and enable parallel transaction processing. Taken together, these solutions significantly increased the network’s throughput.
* The mempool (memory pool) is a temporary storage of unconfirmed transactions in a blockchain. All new transactions first enter the mempool, where they wait to be included in a block and confirmed by validators.
How Solana handles peak loads
Despite its high performance, Solana has repeatedly faced disruptions during sharp spikes in activity. This most often occurred during large-scale NFT drops* or surges in DeFi operations, especially amid speculative interest in memecoins. The failures varied in scale — from partial slowdowns to a complete network halt.
* An NFT drop is a time-limited release of a new NFT collection during which users attempt to purchase tokens in large numbers. Such events create a sharp spike in transactional activity and high load on the blockchain.
Experts note that NFT drops are among the most stressful scenarios for any blockchain. For example, in 2023, the launch of the Tensorians collection on the Tensor Trade marketplace generated 4.3 million transactions with SOL in just 15 minutes — approximately 4,800 TPS. Users reported delays and errors, but the network continued to function.
By comparison, Ethereum faces severe difficulties under much lower loads. During the Azuki NFT collection drop in 2023, at around 180 TPS, 1.2 million transactions were processed, leading to transaction fees rising to $45 per operation.
At the same time, Solana has experienced more serious incidents. In January 2022, the network was overwhelmed by transactions launched by arbitrage bots* amid high market volatility. This led to a halt in the blockchain for approximately 30 hours — one of the longest outages in Solana’s history.
* Arbitrage bots are automated trading programs that track price differences across crypto exchanges or decentralized protocols and instantly execute trades to profit. During periods of high volatility, they can generate thousands of transactions per second.
Among the leading causes of failures, experts highlight sharp surges in transaction volume, misconfigured nodes and software code, and software vulnerabilities.
After that, the Solana team implemented several improvements, including transaction limits and prioritization, DDoS protection, and increased validator requirements. As a result, the number of network outages significantly decreased, as did their duration.
Development of the Solana ecosystem
Solana ranks second in terms of the size of its DeFi ecosystem, trailing only Ethereum. According to DeFi Llama data as of August 2025, the total value locked (TVL) in the network exceeds $10.6 billion — nearly $3 billion more than BNB Smart Chain.
At the peak of activity in February 2025, the daily number of transactions on Solana exceeded 100 million, with the majority of operations coming from DeFi protocols.
According to Token Terminal data, Solana ranks among the top three blockchains by daily active users — around 2.6 million. Only BNB Smart Chain and NEAR Protocol rank higher.
Solana also stands out due to its combination of high throughput and low transaction costs. Despite the Dencun upgrade significantly reducing fees on Ethereum L2 networks (Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, Optimism), they still lag noticeably behind Solana in terms of transactions per second.
For example, Arbitrum processes an average of 40–80 TPS, while Base handles around 50–100 TPS. Confirmation time in L2 networks typically ranges from 2 to 5 seconds, whereas in Solana it is about 400 ms.
On Ethereum’s base layer, the figures are even more modest: throughput of around 30 TPS and an average fee of $0.05–0.06 per transaction, which is several times higher than on Solana.