Grayscale calls Solana ‘crypto’s financial bazaar’: Does the data back it up?
Grayscale, one among crypto’s largest institutional asset managers, printed a research note on Oct. 10 calling Solana (SOL) “crypto’s financial bazaar.”
This characterization goes nicely past the traditional speed-and-throughput pitch. The report positions SOL as the class chief in customers, transactions, and costs, arguing that its consumer expertise, architectural moat through the Solana Virtual Machine, and software variety create a sturdy basis for valuation.
It’s a major shift in institutional tone. Grayscale is now giving Solana the identical remedy it as soon as reserved for Ethereum as “digital oil.”
The thesis issues much less for what Grayscale believes than for what it indicators. When a significant allocator aligned with the conventional finance ecosystem formalizes an funding case round a blockchain that was left for lifeless after FTX collapsed, different desks take discover.
The query is whether or not the numbers assist the narrative, or whether or not “financial bazaar” continues to be extra metaphor than measurable actuality.
We stress-tested Grayscale’s claims in opposition to main on-chain data, developer trackers, and technical benchmarks. The route is correct: Solana leads on a number of key metrics.
However, the institutional case carries trade-offs that the report acknowledges solely in passing, and some headline figures deserve nearer scrutiny.
What Grayscale says
The report frames Solana as the standout amongst good contract platforms on three core fundamentals: customers, transaction quantity, and costs.
Grayscale cites roughly $425 million in month-to-month ecosystem charges, an annualized run fee above $5 billion, and factors to $1.2 trillion in year-to-date DEX quantity routed by Raydium and Jupiter.
It highlights Jupiter as the largest DEX aggregator by quantity in the trade, Pump.enjoyable’s 2 million month-to-month lively customers, and Helium’s 1.5 million day by day customers as proof of software variety.
On the developer facet, the report notes greater than 1,000 full-time Solana builders and claims the ecosystem has grown quicker than another good contract platform over the previous two years.
Speed and price obtain equal billing. Solana produces blocks each 400 milliseconds, with transactions thought of ultimate in roughly 12 to 13 seconds.
Average transaction charges sit at $0.02, whereas median day by day charges this 12 months have averaged $0.001, one-tenth of 1 cent, due to native charge markets that isolate congestion to particular high-demand functions.
A forthcoming improve referred to as Alpenglow goals to cut back finality to 100 to 150 milliseconds.
Grayscale additionally attracts boundaries. It explicitly states that SOL “could also be much less appropriate as a long-term retailer of worth than Bitcoin or Ethereum,” citing increased nominal provide inflation and centralization vectors.
The report famous that Solana’s effectivity comes at the value of comparatively high {hardware} and bandwidth necessities, with 99% of staked SOL in data facilities and roughly 45% concentrated in the high two internet hosting suppliers.
What the numbers present
DeFiLlama reveals Solana persistently running around 2.6 million active addresses in the final 24 hours and roughly 67 million on-chain transactions over the identical window, consistent with 2025’s typical tempo.
Artemis reporting from mid-2025 highlighted that Solana matched all different layer-1 and layer-2 networks mixed on month-to-month lively addresses, corroborating the “class chief” characterization on consumer depend.
Regarding charges, the “$425 million per thirty days” determine requires context. Token Terminal’s chain-level charge data for Solana present tens of hundreds of thousands per thirty days in a number of 2025 intervals, round $30 million to $40 million in current months.
DeFiLlama reveals present day by day chain charges round $0.8 million to $1.6 million and app charges round $9 million to $13 million, collectively implying roughly $300 million to $450 million per thirty days at the current tempo, relying on market depth.
Hundreds of hundreds of thousands per thirty days throughout busy intervals is believable, however $425 million as a gentle baseline overstates the run fee. The combine between chain charges and app charges additionally issues for apples-to-apples comparisons throughout networks.
The report additionally addressed volumes. DeFiLlama’s chain dashboard reveals Solana commonly posting multi-billion-dollar day by day DEX quantity and greater than $40 billion in the final seven days, with a number of current days topping Ethereum.
Weekly, Solana topped Ethereum’s volumes for 33 out of 42 weeks this 12 months.
Jupiter presently ranks as the trade’s largest DEX aggregator by 30-day quantity, roughly $22.3 billion versus $13 billion to $14 billion for 1inch, supporting Grayscale’s declare.
For the lively developer base, Electric Capital’s dwell tracker reveals Solana with roughly 17,708 complete builders as of mid-October 2025, with the full-time developer base up 29.1% 12 months over 12 months and 61.7% over two years.
The ecosystem attracted 7,625 new builders in 2024, the most of any chain, and has added greater than 11,500 new builders 12 months to this point by mid-October 2025.
That locations Solana second solely to Ethereum in lively builders, confirming the “giant and rising” characterization.
On finality and velocity, Chainspect reviews Solana slot time round 0.4 seconds and typical finality at roughly 12.8 seconds right now, aligning with Grayscale’s 12- to 13-second declare.
Additionally, Helius’ technical documentation on native charge markets explains how Solana sustains high throughput whereas retaining median consumer charges in fractions of a cent, even throughout congestion.
The data directionally assist the thesis that Solana leads in lively customers, usually leads in DEX circulate, hosts the largest aggregator, and ranks second in builders.
The charge declare is correct throughout sizzling markets however overstates the steady-state baseline.
Why establishments are warming up now
Institutions are warming to Solana as a result of the consumer expertise is now measurably quick, low-cost, and extra predictable.
Local charge markets preserve most congestion and precedence charges localized to sizzling functions, so on a regular basis transactions keep cheap even when exercise spikes, one thing custodians and venues worth once they batch flows or settle shopper orders.
Chainspect measures roughly 0.4-second block occasions and 12.8-second finality right now, and the Alpenglow improve targets sub-second finality, decreasing settlement danger home windows for market makers and brokers.
Reliability has improved since the mainnet halt on Feb. 6, 2024, which lasted about 5 hours. Yet, data reveals stronger uptime and throughput in subsequent months.
Liquidity has deepened throughout each DEX and aggregator rails, which issues for execution and hedging.
DeFiLlama reveals Solana commonly at or close to the high in chain-level DEX volumes. At the identical time, Jupiter ranks as the largest DEX aggregator by 30-day quantity, giving establishments a single router into pooled liquidity throughout Raydium, Orca, Meteora, and others.
Token Terminal data additionally reveals rising charge seize on Solana’s stack, chain plus apps, a proxy for sustained consumer demand that helps tighter spreads and deeper books.
Post-FTX, the ecosystem has rebuilt credibility and infrastructure. The Artemis report already talked about means that the consumer base and throughput weren’t simply hype cycles.
On the product facet, a regulated-product pipeline has emerged, with a number of spot SOL exchange-traded funds (ETFs) functions pending earlier than the US authorities shutdown paused SEC evaluations, signaling mainstream issuers’ curiosity, even when the timing has slipped.
Together, consumer traction and visual institutional wrappers decrease the perceived idiosyncratic danger that saved some desks sidelined in 2023.
The structural trade-offs
Grayscale acknowledges centralization however solely in define. Running a high-quality validator nonetheless assumes server-class {hardware}, 12-plus cores, AVX2/512 instruction units, NVMe arrays, and 256GB-plus RAM, which raises the barrier to entry and pushes operators towards data facilities.
Solana’s efficient decentralization, measured by the Nakamoto coefficient, stood at 20 as of Apr. 16, 2025, down from the next peak, that means fewer entities would want to collude to censor transactions than in intervals when the coefficient was bigger.
Client variety stays in transition. The Agave and Jito purchasers nonetheless dominate Solana, whereas Firedancer is progressing however has solely run in restricted or non-voting configurations, with full rollout focused for 2025.
Until Firedancer and different purchasers are extensively adopted, single-client danger persists.
Store-of-value headwinds stem from issuance and charge coverage. The present annual issuance ranges from 4% to five%, with a disinflationary path towards a decrease long-term goal, increased than Bitcoin’s fastened schedule and able to diluting holders absent offsetting burn.
Following SIMD-0096, solely 50% of the base charge is burned, and the priority-fee burn has been discontinued, weakening the burn counterweight when exercise shifts towards precedence charges.
High throughput drives giant ledgers, frequent snapshots, and improve cadence.
Recommended setups embody a number of high-TBW NVMe gadgets for accounts, ledgers, and snapshots, which raises ongoing operational prices in comparison with lighter chains.
Grayscale’s Solana thesis, which posits that quick, low-cost, and sticky functions yield sustainable community worth, holds up on the fundamentals that matter most to establishments: lively customers, transaction throughput, developer pipeline, and liquidity depth.
The “financial bazaar” framing is greater than advertising, as Solana hosts a various and dense on-chain economic system that rivals or exceeds its friends on a number of dimensions.
Yet, the caveats matter. The $425 million month-to-month charge determine is a high-water mark, not a baseline. Centralization vectors, centered round {hardware} necessities, stake focus, and shopper variety, are actual, even when they haven’t but impaired community operations.
And the store-of-value limitation Grayscale attracts is a deliberate line. SOL is a utility and hypothesis automobile, relatively than a financial asset in the sense of Bitcoin or Ethereum.
The following milestones to look at are Alpenglow’s finality improve and Firedancer’s full deployment.
If Solana can ship sub-second finality whereas diversifying its shopper base, the institutional case strengthens. If {hardware} necessities proceed to push validators into data facilities and the Nakamoto coefficient drifts decrease, the “bazaar” dangers changing into a walled backyard.
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