TLDR
- Solana achieved 107,540 TPS in a stress test, but most transactions were program calls, not actual token transfers.
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Solana’s actual transaction throughput hovers around 1,050 TPS, with voting transactions inflating the total figures.
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Memecoins continue to dominate Solana’s blockchain activity, accounting for the majority of transactions.
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Solana’s potential scalability remains a topic of discussion, with some estimating it could handle up to 100,000 TPS in future operations.
Over the weekend, Solana reached a significant milestone by briefly surpassing 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) during a stress test. This was the first time the blockchain achieved such a feat, according to Mert Mumtaz, co-founder of Solana’s developer tooling firm, Helius. The achievement was hailed as a significant step for the blockchain, though the nature of the transactions played a key role in reaching this record.
Mumtaz noted that while the 100,000 TPS figure was a breakthrough for the blockchain, the majority of these transactions were “noop” (no-operation) program calls, which are essentially lightweight, non-computational transactions used to stress test the network. These program calls do not reflect actual token transfers or complex applications. As a result, while the 100K milestone is impressive, it does not represent real-world transaction usage.
Real-World TPS Remains Lower for Solana
Despite the headline-grabbing 100,000 TPS, Solana’s actual throughput is significantly lower. According to Solscan, the network’s true TPS hovers around 1,050 transactions per second, a figure that accounts for valid user transactions, such as token transfers and smart contract interactions.
The inflated TPS numbers are largely driven by vote transactions, where validators participate in the consensus process by submitting voting transactions.
These vote transactions, which are required to maintain the network’s consensus, contribute heavily to the reported TPS figures but do not reflect genuine user activity. Two-thirds of Solana’s TPS are inflated by these voting transactions, which means the network’s true operational capacity remains far below the 100K figure.
Solana Dominated by Memecoins
Another interesting trend is Solana’s continued dominance in memecoins. A recent analysis revealed that the platform Pump.fun, a memecoin minting and trading platform, holds a staggering 62% share of Solana’s total value locked (TVL). This highlights Solana’s ongoing reliance on memecoins to drive most of its activity, with such tokens continuing to play a major role in the blockchain’s ecosystem.
Despite the blockchain’s potential for high throughput, the concentration of memecoins and their associated activities represents a relatively narrow use case for the network.
This could limit the broader adoption of Solana for more complex applications such as decentralized finance (DeFi) or enterprise solutions. However, the network’s growing activity in the memecoin space still positions Solana as one of the most active blockchains in the crypto industry.
Future of Solana’s Scalability and Alpenglow Proposal
Solana’s achievement in reaching 100K TPS during the stress test has sparked further discussions about its scalability potential. While the network may not yet achieve sustained 100K TPS in real-world conditions, developers are optimistic that the blockchain can eventually reach between 80,000 and 100,000 TPS for actual transactions. Solana’s architecture, built for scalability, allows the network to process transactions quickly, but real-world stressors like complex smart contracts and token exchanges remain testing points.
Solana’s new consensus proposal Alpenglow (SIMD-0326) has entered the community governance stage. The protocol aims to reduce block finality from 12.8s to ~150ms. Voting will take place between Epochs 840–420 (current epoch: 834, ~2 days each). The proposal passes if yes votes…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) August 17, 2025
A significant development in Solana’s future scalability is the Alpenglow consensus proposal (SIMD-0326), which is currently in the community governance stage. This new protocol aims to reduce block finality from 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds, making Solana much faster and more efficient. Voting for this proposal will take place between Epochs 840–420, with a two-thirds majority of yes votes required for the proposal to pass. This could drastically improve Solana’s overall performance, positioning it to handle even higher throughput with reduced latency.
Despite these challenges, Solana’s developers remain focused on the long-term potential for the network, positioning it as a major player in the blockchain ecosystem, especially for use cases that can benefit from high-speed transactions.