#Gate13周年现场直击

Solana Q1 revenue plunged 68% : What remains of SOL's underlying value?

Solana Q1 revenue dropped sharply by 68%, with active developers losing a third, while the total network fees fell to $89.9 million, the lowest since Q3 2023; monthly active developers decreased by about 30% year-on-year, resonating with the industry-wide AI replacement wave. The speculative tide has rapidly receded, meme coin trading volume has collapsed dramatically, and the bubble of on-chain yields has been burst one by one. An unavoidable question faces all token holders: when both revenue and developer activity slow down, how much of SOL's underlying value remains?

Data Dilemma: The Triple Recession of Solana Q1

Solana Q1 revenue plunged 68%, with active developers losing a third. Behind this collapse in revenue are three simultaneous declines: speculative demand, on-chain activity, and developer participation. For comparison, Ethereum L1 fees during the same period were $82 million, narrowing the gap significantly.

Specifically, in the fee structure, Jito tips (MEV) plummeted 72.3% year-on-year, and priority fees decreased by 68.8%. Pump Fun remains the largest contributor to network GDP ($103 million), but the misalignment between its valuation and SOL price has raised market concerns.

What also alarms us is that the average cost to generate $1 of actual economic value on the network increased by 93% year-on-year to $8.10, indicating a clear decline in efficiency. Additionally, the number of monthly active developers on Solana decreased by about 30% compared to the same period last year, resonating with the broader industry trend of AI replacing Web3 developers.

Structural Pain: The Single-Leg Model Highly Dependent on Speculation

Solana Q1 revenue dropped 68%, active developers lost a third, and Solana has fallen into a typical structural trap.

We imagine this chain as a flash retail mall relying on meme coins and retail trading; it is bustling during peak season but deserted in off-peak times. The number of active addresses dropped from a high of 40 million in March to around 34 million, DEX daily trading volume decreased by 4% year-on-year, and the share of meme coins in Solana DEX trading volume once soared to over 63% at the bubble peak, then sharply declined in Q1.

In terms of yields, the average real on-chain yield in the first quarter was only 0.17% (annualized), down 67% year-on-year. Of the total on-chain yield of 6.7%, 89% came from newly issued SOL rather than real economic activity. Although stablecoin supply increased by 18% to $15.9 billion, its circulation velocity decreased by 69% quarter-on-quarter, indicating that funds are not truly flowing. The number of new tokens created on Pump Fun increased by 21% to 3 million, but a large amount of low-quality assets diluted the network’s real value.

SOL’s Value Anchor: Technological Upgrades and Community Resilience Building Remaining Assets

Solana Q1 revenue plunged 68%, with active developers losing a third. Despite short-term pressure, Solana’s underlying value still manifests in two irreplaceable dimensions: a performance revolution and staking consensus.

Technical Anchor

The Alpenglow protocol upgrade was launched on mainnet in early 2026, reducing block finalization time from 12 seconds to 100–150 milliseconds. The Firedancer V1 audit competition was launched on April 9, with Jump Crypto offering a $1 million bounty, and the full mainnet version is expected to go live within 2026. The Firedancer team also proposed the SIMD-0370 proposal to remove block computation limits, paving the way for unlimited scalability.

Staking Anchor

The number of SOL holders surged to a record high of 166.9 million in early April. Staked amount reached 426.4 million tokens, accounting for 74.4% of circulating supply. Standard Chartered maintains a price target of $250 by the end of 2026 and is optimistic about Solana’s long-term potential in the stablecoin micro-payments sector. As of press time, the latest SOL price is $85.67.

Community confidence in Solana has shifted from emotion-driven to infrastructure faith. The growth in holdings alongside falling prices indicates that holders are not betting on the next meme coin wave but are betting that Alpenglow and Firedancer can ultimately support a blockchain capable of running all applications.