Solana Briefly Beat The NYSE On Weekly Trades, Fidelity Says
Solana briefly handled more trades in a week than the New York Stock Exchange, according to a new report from Fidelity Digital Assets that calls the blockchain “an emerging piece of financial market infrastructure.”
Key Takeaways
- Fidelity Digital Assets says Solana reached about 15% of major US exchange activity and briefly passed the NYSE in weekly executions.
- Solana says that share was just 0.30% in 2022
- Monthly trading in tokenized assets on Solana grew from under $100M to nearly $5B
- The figures count trades, not dollars, and Fidelity warns that trading activity is cyclical
What Fidelity Found
The report says Solana reached roughly 15% of major US exchange activity and at one point executed more weekly trades than the NYSE.
Solana shared the findings on X on Sunday, adding that its share was 0.30% in 2022 and that monthly trading in tokenized assets, such as tokenized stocks and funds, has grown from under $100M to nearly $5B.
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Why Traders Are Moving To Solana
Fidelity points to speed and cost. Solana produces a new block about every 400 milliseconds, down to a long-term goal of about 200 milliseconds, and the network recently raised how much work each block can hold by 66%. Fees stay at fractions of a cent, even during rushes like the January 2025 memecoin frenzy.
Professional market makers now run their own trading pools on Solana and are winning a growing share of its exchange volume. Perpetual futures exchanges built on Solana processed more than $590B in trades over the past 12 months, the report said.
How Solana Makes Money From It
Most of Solana’s revenue comes from priority fees and tips that traders pay to get their orders processed first, not from basic transaction fees. “Solana generates value primarily from competition for transaction ordering rather than competition for limited blockspace,” Fidelity research analyst Max Wadington wrote. That lets ordinary transfers stay cheap while the network still earns more when trading heats up.
The Catch
The 15% and NYSE comparisons count the number of trades, not their dollar value, and much of Solana’s activity is in crypto-native tokens rather than stocks. Fidelity also notes that a large share of stock trading happens away from public exchanges, and that crypto trading is cyclical and fiercely competitive.
What To Watch Next
The next test is Alpenglow, an upgrade to how Solana’s validators agree on new blocks that Fidelity says should keep capacity growing.
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