Solana excels in DEX volume and crushes Ethereum by 7 times in daily activity - but ETH retains $70 billion TVL. Who is the real winner?

🔥 Introduction: Clash of the Titans in 2026

The battle between Solana and Ethereum is no longer just a technical discussion... it has become an economic war for control over the future of blockchain!

Shocking numbers:

Solana achieved $117 billion DEX trading volume versus only $52 billion for Ethereum.

Solana has 3.6 million daily active wallets compared to 530 thousand for Ethereum (7 times!).

Solana ETF inflows reached $660 million surpassing Ethereum by $600 million.

But Ethereum still dominates with $70-75 billion TVL compared to only $9 billion for Solana.

The real question: Does superiority in speed and activity beat security and liquidity?

📊 Overall comparison: Face to face

1. Speed and performance ⚡

Transaction speed: Solana 400 milliseconds versus Ethereum 12 seconds.

TPS (theoretical): Solana 65,000 versus Ethereum 100,000 after the upgrade.

Actual TPS: Solana 2,600-4,000 versus Ethereum 15-30.

Finality Time: Solana 12-13 seconds (soon 1 second after Alpenglow) versus Ethereum 12-13 minutes.

Winner: Solana in speed and performance.

2. Cost and fees 💰

Average transaction fees: Solana $0.00025 versus Ethereum $2-20.

Cost of a million transactions: Solana $250 versus Ethereum $2-20 million.

Swap on DEX: Solana $0.002 versus Ethereum $5-50.

Practical example: Minting 10,000 NFT pieces: Solana ~$2,500 versus Ethereum $200,000–$2 million.

Winner: Solana by a huge margin.

3. Security and stability 🛡️

Validators: Solana 800-1,500 versus Ethereum 900,000+.

Uptime: Solana 99.9% versus Ethereum 99.99%.

Historical outages: Solana 9 major outages versus Ethereum zero since launch.

Audits: Ethereum is more audited compared to limited Solana.

Winner: Ethereum in security and reliability.

4. The ecosystem 🌍

Ethereum: 4,000+ dApps with $50B+ TVL, DeFi like Uniswap, Aave, MakerDAO, Curve, NFT market $10B+.

Solana: 500+ dApps with $8B TVL but growing 300% annually, DeFi like Raydium, Orca, Marinade, Memecoins like Bonk, DogWifHat, Popcat.

Winner: Ethereum for depth, Solana for rapid growth.

5. Activity and engagement 📈

Daily Active Addresses: Solana 3.6 million versus Ethereum 530 thousand.

DEX volume: Solana $117 billion versus Ethereum $52 billion.

Daily Transactions: Solana 160 million versus Ethereum ~1.2 million.

Winner: Solana in activity and engagement.

6. Liquidity and Total Value Locked (TVL) 💎

Ethereum DeFi TVL ~$75 billion versus Solana $9.2 billion.

Ethereum L2s combined ~$9.05 billion.

Solana competes with all Ethereum L2s in DeFi TVL, but institutions prefer Ethereum for holding large assets.

Winner: Ethereum for deep liquidity, Solana for growth.

🚀 Major upgrades: Who owns the future?

Solana: Alpenglow Upgrade (Q1 2026) → Finality 100-150 milliseconds, Firedancer Client raises TPS to 1 million transactions/second, Uptime 99.99%.

Ethereum: Pectra + Fusaka (2025) → Account Abstraction, higher Gas Limit, L2s Base, Arbitrum, Optimism expand.

Winner: Solana has stronger momentum in 2026.

📉 Prices: How did they perform in 2026?

Solana (SOL): Current price $84.20, down 35% since the start of 2026, lowest price 2026 $67.31.

Ethereum (ETH): Current price ~$2,095, down 28% in February and touched $1,746, historical peak ~$4,800.

February forecasts: Solana $60-100, Ethereum $2,000-2,500.

End of 2026 forecasts: Solana $280-340, Ethereum $4,200-5,000.

🎯 Who wins in each category?

Choose Solana if: High-frequency applications, low cost, execution speed, retail audience, limited gas budget.

Choose Ethereum if: Absolute security, deep liquidity, mature ecosystem, institutional applications, credibility.

💡 Strategic analysis:

Weaknesses of Solana: Limited decentralization, history of outages, limited TVL, less mature development tools.

Weaknesses of Ethereum: High fees, relative slowness, L2 complexity, Gas Wars.

The future: Multi-Chain → both succeed depending on the type of use.

🎬 Final summary

There is no single winner!

Solana won in: Speed, cost, activity, growth.

Ethereum won in: Security, liquidity, maturity, institutional trust.

Investment recommendation: Hold both (60% ETH / 40% SOL), bet on growth with Solana, and stability with Ethereum.

💬 A question for you:

Which team are you with?

🟣 Team Ethereum - Security and stability

🟢 Team Solana - Speed and innovation

🟡 Team Multi-Chain - both together!

Share your thoughts in the comments 👇

Do you think Solana will surpass Ethereum in TVL by 2027? Or will ETH remain the undisputed king?

#Solana #Ethereum #defi #BinanceSquare #SOLvsETH

⚠️ Disclaimer:

This analysis is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Both projects have risks. Do your own research (DYOR) before investing.

Sources for more details:

,Binance, CoinPaprika, DefiLlama, Crypto News, Sanbase, Exolix, 99Bitcoins, World Economic Forum, CoinDCX, Coinpedia, CoinMarketCap