DeFi Growth and Market Shifts
While TVL expanded, Solana faced contrasting performance across other areas of its ecosystem. Average daily spot decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volumes fell by 45.4%, sliding to $2.5 billion. Analysts attributed the drop to fading hype around memecoins, which had driven high-volume speculative trading earlier in the year.
The stablecoin market on Solana also saw setbacks. The total stablecoin market cap dropped 17.4% to $10.3 billion, leaving the network in third place among peers. Much of the earlier momentum was linked to the launch of the official TRUMP token on January 17, which boosted liquidity and created high-volume trading pairs using Circle’s USDC. Despite the overall decline, Messari noted that much of the new liquidity has remained within the Solana ecosystem.
By the end of Q2 2025, USDC’s market cap fell 25.2% to $7.2 billion, holding a 69.5% share of Solana’s stablecoin market. Tether’s USDT maintained its second spot with $2.3 billion.
Staking and Network Metrics
One of Solana’s most notable areas of growth was staking. Liquid staking participation rose to 12.2%, marking a 16.8% quarter-over-quarter increase. Overall, 64.8% of SOL’s circulating supply is now staked, bolstering yield opportunities for holders and strengthening network security.
The total staked value hit an all-time high of $102 billion on January 18 when SOL peaked at around $295. By the end of Q2, staked SOL increased 25.2% to $60 billion.
Solana’s circulating market cap rose nearly 30% to $82.8 billion, ranking it sixth among all cryptocurrencies behind Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), XRP, and Binance Coin (BNB).
NFTs and Network Usage
Despite the growth of DeFi and staking, Solana’s non-fungible token (NFT) market struggled. Average daily NFT trading volume plummeted 46.4% to about $979,500 in Q2. Still, Solana NFTs maintained a leading position in creator royalty generation.
Network activity remained steady. Average daily fee payers slipped slightly by 1.4% to 3.9 million, while non-vote transactions climbed 4% to 99.1 million. A major highlight was transaction affordability, as average fees dropped 59.6% to just $0.01.
Outlook for Solana
Messari’s analysis suggested that Solana is in a phase of “adjustment.” Despite downturns in NFTs, DEX volumes, and stablecoin activity, the core fundamentals of DeFi staking and developer activity point toward a promising outlook.
As of publication, SOL trades at $184.50, down 4.4% in the past 24 hours and nearly 40% below its 2025 peak of $293.
