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Solana is a high-speed Layer 1 blockchain built for applications that need to be fast and cheap to use. Transactions confirm in under a second, fees typically sit under $0.01, and the network can handle up to 65,000 transactions per second in theory, with peaks of up to 4,000 in real-world conditions. SOL is the native currency, used to pay for transactions, stake on the network, and participate in governance. Unlike Ethereum, most of what runs on Solana does so directly on the base layer without needing a separate scaling network on top.
Anatoly Yakovenko published the Proof of History whitepaper in November 2017, after spending over a decade at Qualcomm building operating systems and embedded networks. The core problem he wanted to solve was throughput. Blockchains were slow because validators had to constantly communicate to agree on transaction order, and he found a way around that.
He co-founded Solana Labs in 2018 with Greg Fitzgerald, Stephen Akridge, and Raj Gokal, and the mainnet beta launched on 16 March 2020 with SOL trading at around $0.22.
Proof of History is a cryptographic clock built directly into the Solana blockchain. On most blockchains, validators need to communicate with each other to agree on when transactions happened and in what order, and that communication is what slows everything down. Proof of History removes that bottleneck by running a continuous hash function that produces a verifiable sequence, with each transaction stamped into that sequence at a specific point. Validators can check the order without talking to anyone else because the clock proves it for them.
Proof of History is one piece of it. Solana was built with eight core technical innovations working together: Tower BFT for consensus, Turbine for breaking blocks into small packets and spreading them efficiently, Gulf Stream for forwarding transactions to validators before they are confirmed, Sealevel for running smart contracts in parallel, Pipelining for processing different stages of validation simultaneously, Cloudbreak as the account database, and Archivers for data storage.
The tradeoff is hardware. Running a Solana validator requires high-spec machines with fast processors, NVMe storage, and quick network connections, which makes it more expensive to participate than on Ethereum. That is a real centralisation concern and one that the network has not fully resolved.
The Proof of History whitepaper came out in November 2017, Solana Labs was founded in 2018, and the mainnet beta launched in March 2020. In 2021, SOL went from a few dollars to an all-time high of around $260 as DeFi and NFTs exploded on the network, with FTX and Alameda Research becoming major ecosystem backers along the way.
Then 2022 hit hard. The network suffered multiple outages, and when FTX collapsed in November of that year, SOL's price fell from around $38 to roughly $8. Recovery started in 2023, driven by the BONK memecoin, Jupiter's growth as a DEX aggregator, and steady technical improvements to network stability. By 2025, Solana ranked second only to Ethereum for new developer activity, adding around 11,000 developers that year, and spot Solana ETFs began trading in the United States in October 2025.
Solana produces a new block every 0.4 seconds and handles up to 4,000 transactions per second in real-world conditions, with a theoretical maximum of 65,000. Fees typically sit under $0.01 per transaction, making it one of the cheapest blockchains to use. That speed and cost gap over the Ethereum mainnet is the main reason Solana attracted significant DeFi and NFT activity from 2021 onwards.
Two things hit simultaneously. The network suffered multiple outages through 2021 and 2022, raising serious questions about reliability. Then in November 2022, FTX collapsed. FTX and Alameda Research had been major backers of the Solana ecosystem, and when they went down, SOL fell from around $38 to under $10 within weeks.
Both are programmable blockchains, but built on different assumptions. Solana optimises for speed and low cost on the base layer. Ethereum prioritises security and decentralisation, relying on Layer 2 networks for cheap transactions. Ethereum holds significantly more total value in DeFi. Solana leads on raw transaction volume and retail trading activity.
Staking means delegating SOL to a validator who processes transactions and secures the network. No minimum amount is required. Current yields sit at around 6–7% annually. Validators who behave dishonestly can be penalised, which affects the rewards of anyone delegating to them.
SPL stands for Solana Program Library and is Solana's token standard, equivalent to Ethereum's ERC-20. Every token built on Solana uses it, including USDC on Solana, DeFi tokens, and NFTs. SPL tokens are held in token accounts linked to a main Solana wallet.
Not banned, but not legal tender either. Holding and trading SOL is permitted on exchanges registered with FIU-IND. Gains are taxed at a flat 30% plus cess, and every trade attracts 1% TDS deducted at source by the exchange.
The key metrics are network revenue, daily active addresses, transactions per day, developer activity, total value locked in DeFi, validator count, and staking participation rate. ICR Score combines all of these into a single proprietary score for Solana's fundamental health.
