Solana at 5: Impressive Growth, But Future Hinges on Firedancer

• Solana marks its 5-year anniversary as network activity sees a downturn.  
• Firedancer upgrade deployment begins, promising a more robust and faster network.  
• Despite a dip, Solana still leads in decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes and revenue.

Solana is marking its five-year anniversary, and while the blockchain has shared key accomplishments, including more than 1,300 validators, nearly $1 trillion in total trading volume, and over 408 billion transactions processed, the focus is clearly on the future.  

The network made rapid progress in decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes and revenue. In January 2025, Solana applications generated over $28 million in daily revenue, reaching 75% of the market share. 

Solana also pulled in over 75% of all the tokens ever launched on all blockchains, surpassing all other networks by a wide margin. For comparison, Ethereum reached $4 million in daily revenue (10% market share), BNB $3.11 million (8%), and Base $2 million (5%).

Related: Solana Community Rejects Inflation Overhaul While Backing Staking Rewards

Why is the Firedancer Upgrade So Important?

The upcoming Firedancer upgrade, developed by Jump Crypto, aims to dramatically increase the network’s throughput to a theoretical maximum of 1 million transactions per second, further solidifying its dominance in the scalability arena. Firedancer has been under development since 2022 to address the network’s growing woes. 

Solana’s core developers like the RockawayX team have successfully deployed Frankendancer, an early version of Firedancer, to its Solana validator. Back then, Kollen House, a longtime member of Solana’s validator community, saw the push for broader Frankendancer adoption as a sign of the software’s “maturity.”

Solana’s Competitive Edge Hinges on Firedancer

This early testing was a crucial step in ensuring a hassle-free launch of Firedancer, which aims to make the network faster, more decentralized, and more resilient. While that has been in the works, Solana continued to dominate in token launches and unmatched DEX activity throughout these years.

Related: Solana Revenue Tanks 93%: Meme Coin Market Freefall—Network Earnings Suffer

For instance, with the launch of TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins, Solana hit a weekly DEX volume of over $97 billion, nearly double the volume of all other chains combined ($50 billion).

Solana’s ability to deliver on its promise of speed and reliability will be critical for its future success – and for the price of SOL.