Solana’s core economy faces a reality check in the third quarter, but Stablecoins are rising

The economic activity of the Solana network shrank for the second quarter in a row.

Solana witnessed a notable economic slowdown as active addresses fell by 30% in the third quarter of the year and operational efficiency collapsed by over 40%.

But data suggests the network’s stablecoin activity came to the rescue.

Solana’s Network Health Q3

According to The DeFi Report’s The SOL Report Q3 2025, economic activity on the Solana network has declined for the second consecutive quarter. The research revealed a broad contraction in on-chain fundamentals, with Real Economic Value (REV) falling 18% quarter-on-quarter to $222.7 million and Real Onchain Yield falling 48% to 0.47%. Total Onchain returns averaged 7.08% APY, down 10.8% from the previous quarter.

Despite weaker user revenues, staking rewards remained largely supported by the issuance of SOLs, which accounted for 93% of total returns in the third quarter.

The network fundamentals painted a mixed picture. While total SOL stakes rose 3.13% and total value locked (TVL) rose 33% to $11.5 billion, Solana’s network gross domestic product fell 6.8% to $909 million. Active addresses fell sharply by 30%, and DeFi Velocity fell by 18%, due to slower on-chain revenue. The cost to produce $1 of real economic value rose 41% to $5.74, underscoring declining operational efficiency and weaker throughput per unit of capital deployed.

Stablecoin activity was one of the few bright spots in the third quarter. DeFi Report founder Michael Nadeau declared that despite some FUD, the total stablecoin supply on Solana increased by 37% to $14.6 billion, mainly driven by USDC, which grew by 39.6% and now represents 69% of all stablecoins on the network. Average daily stablecoin transfer volume rose 50% to $752 million, while effective speed rose 42%, indicating healthier transaction activity. Meanwhile, Solstice’s USX stablecoin, dubbed the “Ethena on Solana,” saw its supply rise 235% to $167.7 million in September alone.

DeFi activity showed mixed momentum. Decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes rose 7.2% to $3.97 billion per day, although trading platform revenue fell 5% to $214 million and new token launches fell 19%. Private automated market makers (AMMs) emerged as a key growth driver, with volumes increasing 69% and now accounting for 37% of total DEX trading.

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From a tokenomics perspective, SOL issuance fell 2.98%, while SOL burned fell 9%, resulting in a 1.74% increase in circulating supply and a 4.8% annualized net dilution rate. Despite the rise in market capitalization and growing adoption of stablecoins, the DeFi report also revealed that Solana continues to face monetization headwinds due to declining on-chain activity and weakening efficiency.

Growth curve

Even though the network appears to be struggling on several metrics in the short term, it has overtaken Ethereum’s early growth curve in the longer term and has become one of the fastest growing revenue generators in blockchain history.

According to 21Shares, Solana generated $2.85 billion in revenue between October 2024 and September 2025, which is more than 50 times higher than Ethereum’s revenue at a similar stage. By monetizing diverse sectors such as DeFi, AI, real-world assets and the meme coin frenzy, the asset manager said Solana achieved what Ethereum could not in its early years.