In the first quarter of the year, Solana-based meme coins have emerged as the leaders, outperforming ethereum’s meme coin ecosystem and artificial intelligence (ai) tokens, according to a recent report by market data platform CoinMarketCap.
This change in popularity means a change in the dynamics within the cryptocurrency market, with meme coins gaining traction and challenging previously dominant narratives such as smart contracts, decentralized finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (nfts).
Solana ecosystem dominates the growth chart
The CoinMarketCap report He highlights that the Solana ecosystem has consistently topped the growth chart over the past eight months, with over 20 new tokens introduced in the second quarter alone.
The ethereum ecosystem followed closely behind with 14 new tokens, while derivatives and stablecoins saw relatively less growth with 5 and 4 new tokens, respectively. This increase in Solana-based token offerings indicates a growing interest in the network and its potential.
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Solana's meme coin ecosystem, in particular, has gained significant momentum in price performance and popularity since October 2023. Although ethereum remains the dominant blockchain, Solana’s rising prominence suggests a notable trend in the crypto space.
Interestingly, SOL memes have significantly outperformed eth memes, generating an average return of 8,469% compared to ethereum’s 962%, as seen in the chart below.
As “speculative capital” from other chains rushed to Solana, drawn by the explosive demonstrations Similar to tokens like dogwifhat (WIF) and Bonk Inu (BONK), more meme coins experienced price increases, attracting additional attention and capital.
Among the top gainers in the meme coin space are feline characters MEW, POPCAT, and Book of Meme (MEME). These tokens have outperformed even popular ones like WIF, BONK, ethereum’s Pepe coin (PEPE), and Shiba Inu (SHIB).
Notably, political memes also emerged as a popular subcategory: leading meme coin MAGA (TRUMP) has gained over 5,100% year-to-date, largely due to former President Donald Trump’s vocal support for cryptocurrencies and acceptance of crypto for campaign donations.
ethereum tops the ranking of commission income
Despite Solana's significant gains, ethereum continues to dominate the market. Layer 1 (L1) Smart contract market, accounting for 62.11% of the top L1. The report notes that ethereum’s recent milestone was driven by the SEC’s approval of ethereum Spot ETFs.
However, Binance Smart Chain (BNB) and Solana have also gained ground, adding $42 billion and $18 billion to their market share among L1 networks. Solana currently leads with over 1.6 million daily active addresses, followed by BNB with 1 million active addresses.
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In Q2, ethereum experienced historically low gas fees, reaching levels not seen since 2020 due to the growing adoption of Layer 2 Solutions and market enthusiasm around Solana-based meme coins.
Despite accounting for 62% of the market cap among major L1s, ethereum accounted for 70% of daily revenue, generating approximately $2.7 million. Solana came in second with around $900,000 in daily revenue.
x.com/lookonchain/status/1808411819700277746″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>According According to Lookonchain, ethereum topped the fee revenue chart last year with $2.728 billion, followed by bitcoin with $1.302 billion.
Other notable networks include Tron ($459.39 million), Solana ($241.29 million), Binance Smart Chain ($176.56 million), Avalanche ($68.83 million), zkSync Era ($59.77 million), Optimism ($40.4 million), and Polygon ($23.91 million).
Even though both platforms experienced success across various financial metrics and growth charts, Solana’s native token, SOL, has significantly outperformed ethereum’s eth token.
At the current price, SOL is valued at $143.25, which shows a 650% year-to-date growth. eth has seen a more modest 68% increase over the same time period and is currently trading at $3,310.
Featured image of DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
