The price of the SOL crypto collapsed by 33% in the first quarter of 2026. However, behind this brutal decline, the Solana network has never been so active. How to explain this paradox?
In brief
- SOL closed Q1 2026 at around $83, down 33% over the period.
- The average number of daily non-voting transactions reached an absolute record at 112.6 million, or +50% over a quarter.
- “Chain GDP” remained almost stable at $342.2 million, compared to $341.8 million in Q4 2025.
Solana Shows Historic Crypto Activity Despite SOL Collapse
The Messari report on the state of Solana in Q1 2026, published in early May, paints an unexpected picture. As SOL lost a third of its value between January and March 2026, the network simultaneously recorded its highest level of activity in its entire history.
The most striking figure: 112.6 million daily transactions excluding votesup 50% compared to Q4 2025 and 15% above the previous record established in Q2 2025. Clearly, never before have so many transactions passed through Solana in a single day.
“Channel GDP,” the term Messari uses for total app revenue, remained virtually unchanged at $342.2 million, a remarkable stability in a market trending downward.
On the application side, Pump.fun retains first place with $124.7 million in revenue, up 17%. Axiom, a trading platform, climbs into second place with $42.4 million (+36%).
The revelation of the quarter remains Bags, an application allowing you to share transaction fees on social networks. Its revenue exploded 1,347% to $11.5 million, driven by the frenzy around open source AI-related cryptos in January.
Finally, real economic value (REV), which measures MEV fees and tips paid to validators, barely fell 1% to $89.5 million. Solana thus retains the second global network on this indicator, just behind Hyperliquid and its 156 million dollars, a competitor which, precisely, briefly overtook Solana in fully diluted valuation (FDV) on May 21, 2026, a sign that the battle for on-chain revenues is intensifying.
RWAs and stablecoins confirm the rise in maturity of the ecosystem
Beyond transaction volumes, the first quarter marks a significant milestone for Solana in the tokenization of real assets (RWA). The market value of these assets on the network increased by 43% in one quarter to cross the symbolic threshold of 2 billion dollars.
BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized money fund has doubled to $525.4 million, following the integration of Anchorage Digital's custody service, which now holds approximately 81% of the total supply on the network.
Additionally, Ondo launched more than 200 tokenized US stocks and ETFs on Solana, including tokenization on the same day as BitGo's NYSE IPO.
On the stablecoin side, the overall capitalization remained just below $15 billion, but its composition has evolved. USDC fell 21% to 7.83 billion while retaining 53% share, while USDT rose 34% to 2.89 billion.
Even more surprising: World Liberty Financial's dollar jumped 473% to $883.5 million, driven by the reallocation of Binance customer assets to Solana.
DeFi TVL fell 22% to $6.16 billion, but the data is clear: this drop reflects the depreciation of SOL, not user disaffection. Solana's share of global DeFi TVL remained almost stable, increasing from 6.9% to 6.7%.
In short, the first quarter illustrates a truth that investors often tend to forget: the price of an asset and the health of its network are two different things. Solana is the perfect demonstration of this. The crypto ecosystem continues to densify, attract institutional investors and push its own activity records, regardless of market turbulence.
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