Solana: A look at SOL’s network performance and metrics

Key Takeaways

Why is Solana lagging despite strong network activity?

Transaction throughput is surging faster than market valuation, reflected in a seven-month low NVT, signaling Solana may be undervalued.

What could trigger a re-rating for Solana?

Sustained institutional inflows and upcoming network upgrades, boosting efficiency, could align price with on-chain performance.

Solana [SOL] is still running hot. 

At press time, block times hovered around 400–450 ms, while throughput remained high and fees stayed tiny. The interesting part? Firedancer’s progress continues to signal a major performance jump ahead.

Given this, the gap between Solana’s network growth and its price action raises the question: Is SOL undervalued?

Solana’s institutional breakout backed by network muscle

2025 has emerged as a key inflection point for Solana. 

Kicking off the year, SOL saw heavy accumulation, with its DeFi and DAT layers gaining traction and driving broader adoption. As we entered the second half of the year, the long-awaited ETF rollout delivered, living up to expectations.

Looking at the numbers, SOL ETFs have posted eight straight days of inflows totaling $323 million, with Bitwise’s BSOL capturing 96% of that. Taken together, 2025 is shaping up as Solana’s institutional breakout year.

Source: DeFiLlama

Behind this breakout, though, lie Solana’s solid fundamentals. 

On-chain, the network handles around 70 million transactions per day and clocked over $146 billion in monthly DEX volume, according to DefiLlama. Meanwhile, fees stay negligible, with a fixed base rate of just 0.000005.

To put that into perspective, Ethereum [ETH] handles under 1.2 million transactions per day, underscoring Solana’s on-chain throughput edge. Given this, SOL’s current undervaluation looks increasingly compelling.

SOL’s on-chain activity outpaces price

On paper, SOL appears to be lagging behind its on-chain activity. 

Even with ETF inflows, robust fundamentals, and network upgrades, Solana posted the weakest quarterly performance among the top five large-cap coins, falling 26.5% in Q4 and retracing back to the $150 level.

Notably, this divergence is visible on-chain. Solana’s Network Value-to-Transactions (NVT) has fallen to a seven-month low. In practical terms, this indicates that SOL’s throughput is outpacing market valuation.

Source: Glassnode

For example, while SOL processes around 70 million transactions per day, Ethereum handles 1.2 million. And yet, ETH’s market cap remains significantly higher, illustrating the potential undervaluation in SOL.

To shift this, broader market recognition and sustained investor inflows will be needed to bring price in line with network performance. In this context, Solana’s growing institutional interest is certainly a bullish signal.

Looking ahead, Solana’s upcoming network upgrades could act as a turning point for SOL’s valuation. Once they boost efficiency, deeper institutional adoption could follow, driving a notable re-rating of SOL.