Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), the native cryptocurrency of the Solana blockchain, hit a record high of nearly $295 last January. But as of this writing, it trades at approximately $85. Like many other cryptocurrencies, Solana lost its luster as elevated interest rates, geopolitical conflicts, and other macro headwinds drove investors away from speculative investments.
Yet unlike some other altcoins that lack clear catalysts, Solana still has plenty of irons in the fire. Let’s see why it might generate more millionaire-making gains for patient investors.
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Unlike Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), which uses the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism for mining, Solana is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain like Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). PoS tokens can’t be mined, but their blockchains support smart contracts for developing decentralized apps and tokens. They can also be staked (locked up) to earn interest-like rewards.
While Bitcoin is valued by its scarcity, Solana and Ethereum are valued by the growth of their developer ecosystems. However, Solana integrated its own proof-of-history (PoH) validation mechanism (which timestamps transactions before they’re validated) into its Layer 1 (L1) PoS blockchain to process transactions at much higher speeds than Ethereum’s L1 blockchain.
According to Chainspect, Solana’s L1 blockchain can currently process nearly 1,200 transactions per second (TPS), compared to Ethereum’s real-time L1 speed of 24 TPS. Solana’s theoretical max speed of 65,000 TPS also crushes Ethereum’s max speed of 238 TPS.
Solana’s speed has drawn in developers at a much faster rate than Ethereum. Solana’s blockchain had 17,708 active developers in late 2025, placing it in second place behind Ethereum’s 31,869 developers. Ethereum is trying to keep pace with Solana with Layer 2 (L2) “Rollups” that bundle together L1 transactions and process them off-chain at higher speeds, but that fragmented approach could be less appealing than Solana’s unified one.
Solana has even secured partnerships with Visa, which uses it to settle stablecoin payments, and Shopify, which uses Solana Pay (its integrated payment platform) to process cryptocurrency payments for its e-commerce customers. That rising profile could make Solana more appealing than smaller altcoins with less visible catalysts.
