Solana Updates: Major Developments from the Past 90 Days

Solana, one of the leading blockchain protocols, has reported a significant increase in user activity and is introducing developments that may influence its ecosystem. Here's an overview of what's happened in the past three months, proposed upcoming developments, and how these changes could impact users, developers, and investors. 

In the first half of 2025, Solana achieved a significant milestone, among the highest across major L1 and L2 blockchains. According to third-party analytics, Solana generated approximately $271M USD in revenue in 2025, ranking among the highest of major blockchains. Analysts note this reflects increased activity in areas such as meme coins, DeFi, and other on-chain applications

According to a Blockchain.News article, as of August, Solana reported over 16 months of uninterrupted uptime, successfully processing approximately 24.46 billion transactions. Recent infrastructure upgrades expanded block capacity by 20% to 60 million compute units, which are intended to support higher throughput. Outcomes will depend on network demand and adoption.

The upcoming Firedancer validator client, developed by Jump Crypto in collaboration with the Solana Foundation, is engineered to enhance throughput, reduce latency, and increase network resiliency. Actual performance on Solana mainnet will depend on ongoing testing and the phased rollout. 

According to third-party reports, Solana’s tokenized Real-World Asset (RWA) market grew by 217% year-to-date to more than $550M. Alternative estimates place the figure closer to $418M. This represents a faster growth rate on Solana than the broader market

The adoption metrics highlight an upward trend. Recent adoption trends on Solana have coincided with its technical features, including high throughput and low transaction costs, which can facilitate the management of tokenized assets.

A landmark integration with enterprise blockchain R3 Corda exemplifies Solana's strategic positioning in the RWA space. This partnership allows institutions using R3's private ledger to leverage Solana's public blockchain for final settlement, creating a bridge between private enterprise assets and public chain liquidity. 

Solana has published a 2027 roadmap outlining its ambition to support global internet capital markets (ICMs). A key component is Application-Controlled Execution (ACE), aimed at enabling more flexible transaction environments. In the near term, initiatives include Jito’s Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM), expected to launch in September 2025, and DoubleZero, a peer-to-peer network in validator testing. Timelines are subject to change. 

During a high-profile memecoin launch, Phantom Wallet processed 10M swaps in 24 hours, with peak activity exceeding 8M requests per minute. This surge caused temporary fee increases of around 120% and delays. While localized fee markets helped keep average costs relatively low, the event highlighted Solana’s ongoing exposure to congestion risks. 

Planned for Q4 2025, the Alpenglow consensus upgrade is designed to replace Proof of History with Votor and Rotor mechanisms. The upgrade targets faster transaction finality (sub-200ms) and throughput up to 10,000 TPS, though real-world performance will depend on deployment and adoption.

Institutional involvement is also growing. ARK Invest has partnered with SOL Strategies as its exclusive staking provider for a digital asset fund, while the Solana Foundation and R3 continue work on tokenization initiatives that could contribute to the broader growth of blockchain-based capital markets. 

Pump.fun, a Solana-based meme coin launchpad, generated $294M in revenue in Q1 2025. By July 2025, revenue had declined to roughly $25M, an 91.5% drop from its peak on January 23, according to crypto.news. During this downturn, competing platform Bonk.fun surpassed Pump.fun in monthly revenue for the first time, highlighting intensifying competition in the Solana meme coin launchpad space. 

Over the past 90 days, Solana has reported growth in RWAs, consistent uptime, and progress toward new consensus and validator upgrades. Developments such as Firedancer, Alpenglow, and ACE may expand potential use cases, though outcomes will depend on testing, adoption, and broader market conditions.