Solana tops 2025 usage charts – So why didn’t SOL outperform ETH?

As we head into 2026, it’s worth taking a look back at 2025.

On the technical front, 2025 is ending with major top-caps losing capital, closing the year with negative ROI. Among the top five assets, Solana [SOL] stood out as the weakest, down over 30%+ on an annual basis.

To put this into perspective, Ethereum [ETH] was down 6% over the same period.

This meant SOL’s decline is 5x greater than ETH’s, translating into a 25% drop in the SOL/ETH ratio. In short, 2025 has been a year in which ETH outperformed.

But the story isn’t just about price.

Solana and Ethereum are similar L1s. Both are seeing growing adoption, strong RWA rankings, expanding ETF presence, and hosting a variety of protocols.

You’d expect that ETH’s dominance would show on-chain, too.

Surprisingly, according to Artemis CEO Jon Ma, Solana ended up being the most-used chain in 2025. Ultimately, that kicked off a heated debate across the community.

The question remains: Which side carries the most weight?

Solana’s activity lead meets Ethereum’s structural edge

No doubt, Solana’s network dominance is backed by hard data. 

In 2025, it led all chains in multiple key metrics: Monthly Active Users (MAU) reached 98 million, Total Transactions hit 34 billion, and Trading Volume topped $1.6 trillion.

On the revenue side, SOL also came out on top.

Looking at this performance, the case for SOL as the most-used chain can’t be ignored. When it comes to “pure usage,” Solana clearly outpaced other L1s, showing that adoption does not always move in line with market price.

Ethereum’s structural edge

That said, Ethereum retained strength across foundational metrics.

Based on Jon Ma’s post, Solana ranked third in Total Transfer Volume, second in TVL, second in Developer Activity, and third in Stablecoin Supply.

In this context, the whole SOL dominance debate is totally reasonable.

Simply put, while Solana crushes it on network usage, Ethereum still flexes in the core on-chain fundamentals. In fact, most of the metrics SOL lags in are critical for DeFi rails, market depth, and long-term ecosystem play.

Against this backdrop, SOL outperforming ETH in 2026 seems unlikely.

Final Thoughts

• Solana is the weakest among top 5 assets, down 30%+, while Ethereum [ETH] only fell 6%, making the SOL/ETH ratio drop 25%.
• Despite the price gap, Solana emerged as the most-used chain in 2025, sparking debates over on-chain dominance versus market performance.