transaction volume grew from thousands daily

Data suggests Solana’s transaction volume scaled rapidly, rising from tens of thousands per day in 2020 to tens of millions two years later.

It seems likely that user adoption, measured by active addresses, increased from thousands in 2020 to over 5 million daily by 2024, with continued growth into 2025.
Evidence points to Solana achieving major milestones, including surpassing 400 billion transactions and reaching a TVL of $14.2 billion by January 2025.

Transaction Volume Evolution

When Solana launched in March 2020, activity was modest—just tens of thousands of transactions a day. By 2021, as NFTs and DeFi gained popularity, daily transactions grew to millions, driven by their fast and low-cost features. Daily non-vote transactions hit roughly 40 million in 2022, highlighting Solana’s active network. By 2024, monthly transaction values hit $951.9 billion, indicating sustained growth, likely continuing into 2025 with billions of transactions processed.

User Adoption Growth

User adoption, tracked by active addresses, was minimal in 2020, starting in the thousands. By November 2021, monthly active addresses exceeded 2 million, boosted by DeFi and NFT trends. This growth continued, with daily active addresses surpassing 5 million in 2024, suggesting widespread adoption. By March 2025, the user base will remain strong, supported by ongoing ecosystem developments.

Key Milestones

Since its March 2020 launch, Solana has processed more than 400 billion transactions and facilitated nearly $1 trillion in DEX trading. The network's TVL hit an all-time high of $14.2 billion in January 2025, with over 120 projects by mid-2023, and significant community events like hackathons fostering innovation.

Survey Note: Solana's Evolution Over Five Years – Transaction Volume, User Adoption, and Milestones

Solana, a high-performance blockchain platform launched in March 2020, has undergone remarkable growth in its first five years, as of March 18, 2025. This report delves into the evolution of its transaction volume and user adoption, alongside the key milestones achieved, providing a comprehensive overview for a diverse audience, including school students and professionals. The analysis is grounded in available data, acknowledging the complexity and occasional gaps in historical metrics, and aims to be accessible and engaging.

Introduction

Solana was introduced to address scalability challenges in blockchain networks, offering fast, secure, and scalable solutions for decentralized applications (dApps) and marketplaces. Its native cryptocurrency, SOL, facilitates transactions and staking, with the network designed to handle thousands of transactions per second. Understanding transaction volume and user adoption is crucial, as these metrics reflect network activity and community engagement, respectively, shaping Solana's trajectory in the crypto space.

Transaction Volume Evolution

The transaction volume on Solana has seen significant growth since its inception, reflecting its increasing utility and adoption.

2020: Launched in March, Solana likely started with daily transaction volumes in the tens of thousands. Early adoption was slow, with the network building its user base and infrastructure. Given its capacity for high throughput, initial volumes were modest, possibly averaging a few thousand to tens of thousands per day, as it gained traction among developers and early users.
2021: The year marked a surge in activity, particularly with the rise of NFTs and DeFi. Transaction volume grew to millions per day, driven by Solana's low fees and high speeds, especially as Ethereum's gas fees spiked in September 2021. By the end of 2021, daily transactions were likely in the range of several million, with reports indicating significant growth in network activity.
2022: Despite market challenges, including the FTX collapse impacting sentiment, Solana's transaction volume continued to climb. Non-vote transactions, which represent user-initiated activities, reached around 40 million per day by mid-2022, according to Nansen's Q2 2022 report. This period also saw the network processing over 25 billion transactions in total, showcasing its robustness.
Between 2023 and 2024, Solana’s activity not only stabilized but grew further—The Block notes it handled $951.9 billion in transactions in January 2024 alone. This figure represents the value moved on-chain, not the number of transactions, but indicates economic activity. Daily active addresses exceeding 5 million in 2024 suggest sustained high transaction volumes, likely in the tens or hundreds of millions per day, given Solana's capacity.
2025: As of March 2025, Solana maintains its position as a leader, with reports from Blockworks noting over 400 billion transactions processed, and daily activity likely continuing at high levels. The network's ability to handle billions of transactions underscores its scalability, with ongoing developments supporting this growth.

Key factors driving this evolution include Solana's proof-of-history (PoH) and proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanisms, enabling fast transaction finality, and its low transaction fees, attracting DeFi and NFT projects.

User Adoption Growth

User adoption, measured by active addresses or wallets, has been a critical indicator of Solana's success, reflecting community engagement and network utility.

2020: In its launch year, active addresses were likely in the thousands, given the early stage and focus on developer adoption. The network was building its ecosystem, with initial users primarily developers and early adopters.
2021: By January 2021, monthly active addresses were around 100,000, growing to over 2 million by November, according to Statista. This surge was driven by the NFT boom and DeFi growth, with Solana offering a cheaper alternative to Ethereum. Phantom wallet, a popular Solana wallet, reported 520,000 users by late 2021, indicating significant user base expansion.
2022: Active addresses continued to rise, with reports suggesting growth despite market downturns. The network's resilience post-FTX collapse, which saw SOL prices drop, was supported by community efforts and new project launches, maintaining user interest.
Reports from Cointelegraph and SolanaFloor highlight that by 2024, Solana had surpassed 5 million daily active addresses, underscoring its expanding user engagement. This growth was fueled by memecoin activity, DeFi protocols, and increased on-chain interactions, with over 86 million users holding zero SOL, indicating potential bot activity but also significant organic growth. According to Artemis Terminal, monthly active addresses hit 100 million by October 2024, underscoring Solana’s broad adoption.
2025: As of March 2025, user adoption remains strong, with ongoing ecosystem developments like Solana Actions and Blinks enhancing user experience. The network's focus on consumer applications and DePIN projects continues to attract users, with daily active addresses likely maintaining high levels.

Strategies contributing to this growth include community-driven initiatives, hackathons like Hyperdrive, and partnerships with projects like PayPal for PYUSD integration. Real-world use cases, such as gaming (e.g., REKTECH's Degen Simulator) and payments (Solana Pay), have broadened Solana's appeal, attracting both retail and institutional users.

Milestones Achieved

Solana's first five years have been marked by significant milestones, reflecting its technological advancements and ecosystem growth:

Launch and Early Growth (2020-2021):
- Launched on March 16, 2020, with its genesis block, marking the start of its journey.
- Processed over 25 billion transactions by the end of 2021, showcasing early adoption and network activity.
- Established partnerships with funds like Andreessen Horowitz, raising $314 million in June 2021, boosting ecosystem development.
Network Upgrades and Improvements (2022):
- Implemented upgrades like QUIC TPU and stake-weighted QoS to handle high traffic, improving network stability post-outages.
- Introduced Solana Pay in 2022, enabling direct payments and enhancing merchant adoption.
Record-Breaking Transaction Volumes and User Activity (2023-2024):
- By January 2024, monthly transaction values reached $951.9 billion, per The Block, reflecting economic throughput.
- Blockworks reports Solana’s TVL reached an all-time high of $14.2 billion on January 18, 2025, despite broader market volatility.
Community and Ecosystem Development:
- Over 120 projects by mid-2023, including DeFi platforms like Radium and NFT marketplaces like Magic Eden, per Solana's ecosystem news.
- Hosted annual Breakpoint conferences, with 2023 in Amsterdam attracting over 3,000 attendees, fostering innovation.
- Launched community-driven projects like Salami, achieving its first CEX listing in 2024, per Medium.
Regulatory and Legal Developments:
- Faced SEC scrutiny, with SOL alleged as a security in lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance in 2023, but continued to engage with regulators for compliance.
- According to Wikipedia, Solana faced legal hurdles, including a class action lawsuit in July 2022, yet managed to sustain community trust.

These milestones highlight Solana's resilience and innovation, with unexpected details like the rapid rise in daily active addresses to 5 million in 2024, driven partly by bot activity, adding complexity to adoption metrics.

Challenges and How They Were Overcome

Solana faced several challenges, which it addressed through strategic actions:

Network Outages: Experienced multiple outages, notably in 2022, due to high transaction volumes. The February 6, 2024, outage was resolved in under five hours, per Solana's March 2024 network performance report, through community validator efforts and upgrades like v1.17 for validators.
Regulatory Scrutiny: The SEC's actions in 2023 posed challenges, but Solana engaged with regulators, ensuring compliance and maintaining ecosystem growth. Legal battles, like the 2022 class action, were navigated through transparency and community support.
Professional: Following the FTX collapse in 2022, Solana’s TVL declined sharply, yet the community remained committed, with developers continuing to build, according to Step Finance’s Q3 2023 report.

Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Solana is poised for further growth, with predictions including:

Scalability and Performance: Continued enhancements, like ZK compression by Light Protocol, to handle higher volumes, per Massari's Q2 2024 report.
Expanding Use Cases: Growth in gaming, Depina (e.g., Helium, Hive mapper), and AI-driven Dapps, per Massari's Q4 2024 report.
Engaging: From hosting Solana Crossroads in Istanbul in April 2025 (SolanaFloor) to eyeing possible spot SOL ETF approvals (Messari, 2025 Crypto Theses), Solana’s global footprint is widening.

Solana's role in the broader blockchain landscape is significant, potentially challenging Ethereum's dominance with its high-performance capabilities, offering a scalable platform for future innovations.

Tables

Below is a summary table of transaction volume and user adoption over the years:

Year	Daily Transaction Volume (Approx.)	Monthly Active Addresses (Approx.)
2020	Tens of thousands	Thousands
2021	Millions	Up to 2 million by November
2022	Tens of millions	Continued growth
2023	Tens to hundreds of millions	Growing, exact figures unclear
2024	High, likely hundreds of millions	Over 5 million daily by September

Another table for key milestones:

Milestone	Year	Details
Launch	2020	March 16, Genesis block
25 billion transactions processed	By the end of 2021	Reflecting early adoption
TVL hits $14.2 billion	January 2025	All-time high, per Blockworks
Daily active addresses > 5 million	September 2024	Record high, driven by DeFi and memecoins

This comprehensive analysis ensures a thorough understanding of Solana's evolution, providing actionable insights for readers to explore further.

Key Citations

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