.png){kind=logo}
The total value of cryptocurrencies peaked at $4.4 trillion in late 2024. It has since fallen 45% to about $2.4 trillion, with declines accelerating in recent months. Major coins and tokens have dropped across the market, including projects tied to active networks.
The Solana network has experienced a 67% value decrease from its 52-week peak. The network, which started operations in 2020, delivers app performance that exceeds Ethereum through its faster, more affordable, and more powerful capabilities. Developers use Solana to build decentralized applications, which are particularly popular in the gaming and finance sectors.
The market downturn follows a period of rapid growth that pushed crypto’s total value to $4.4 trillion in late 2024. Since then, the market has moved sharply lower to about $2.4 trillion. The text describes the decline as widespread across major assets.
The sell-off has not spared tokens linked to active platforms. The text states that even projects with “genuine use cases” have dropped. As a result, price action has moved against the idea that utility alone supports market value.
Solana’s price drawdown stands out inside that broader drop. The token is 67% below its 52-week high, even as the text points to rising network activity. This has prompted investors to question whether stronger usage can keep growing while prices sink across the sector.
Solana launched in 2020 as an alternative to Ethereum with faster execution and lower costs. Developers use the network to build decentralized applications. These apps appear most often in gaming and finance.
Ethereum remains the leading platform for decentralized applications. Smart contracts define each application’s rules, and the text says they typically cannot be changed. It also says no human or company can seize control, so users receive equal treatment.
Ethereum runs on thousands of nodes around the world that maintain current copies of the blockchain. This structure reduces reliance on a single data center. The text says Ethereum achieved 100% uptime over the last decade.
Solana mirrors much of that approach but adds engineering changes. Ethereum uses proof-of-stake, where participants lock coins as collateral to validate transactions. Validators earn interest, and the text says they can lose coins for malicious behavior.
Solana uses proof-of-stake as well, and it also uses proof-of-history. Proof-of-history encodes each transaction with a timestamp. The text says this helps Solana process thousands of transactions per second.
By comparison, the text says Ethereum typically handles 15 transactions at a time before congestion drives up gas fees. On Solana, each smart contract activation triggers a fee paid in SOL. Lower fees support growing popularity among developers, according to the text.
Solana mints new coins to pay interest to validators. The text links these rewards to validator participation and network function. However, the expanding supply can dilute existing holdings over time.
A built-in mechanism reduces Solana’s inflation rate by 15% each year. The text says supply rose 8% in Solana’s first year. It says inflation drops to about 4% this year and continues falling until 1.5%.
Solana also burns some tokens with each transaction, which removes them from supply permanently. The text says supply could shrink if the network becomes popular enough. It also says that shift may remain years or decades away.
Also Read: Best Solana ETFs for 2026: Compare Fees, Staking Rewards & Promos
Decentralized applications continue to grow, yet the text says they lack mainstream appeal. It names Jupiter, a crypto exchange, and Magic Eden, an NFT marketplace, as popular Solana-based apps. It adds that many people outside the crypto space may not know these platforms.
Even so, the text reports rising usage over time. Daily active wallet addresses reached an all-time high of 9 million last year. The figure later fell to 6.5 million, but it still stayed above any level before 2024.
Finally, the text says speculative investors still strongly influence most crypto prices. This influence remains visible during the recent downturn. It helps explain why Solana fell hard even as the text describes higher network activity.
The crypto market cap fell from a $4.4T peak to about $2.4T, while Solana's price dropped 67% from its 52-week high. The network still posts strong usage, with daily active wallet addresses near 6.5 million. Solana keeps low fees through proof-of-history, while market speculation drives sharp swings.
