Solana apps picked up the pace in July, with 50% revenue growth

All Solana apps picked up the pace in July, with 50% revenue growth. The network also achieved higher fees compared to all other L1 and L2 chains for ten months in a row.

Solana apps reflected the increased liveliness of the crypto space, with revenues soaring by 50% in July. Total application revenue reached $164M for the previous month, with over $43M locked in during the week between 14 and 22 July. 

Solana is trying to accelerate its usage and go beyond meme tokens, though launch platforms remain among the top revenue producers. For the last weeks of July, the effect of LetsBonk.fun was reflected in total fees, as well as generally increased Phantom wallet usage for multiple on-chain tasks. 

The fee production on Solana also reveals the main use cases of the network and its potential to carry out additional tasks. Based on active users, Raydium lines up as the busiest app, followed by Pump.fun and Jupiter Exchange. Jito is among the leaders in terms of daily fees, reaching $1.54M, while Jupiter DEX and Meteora achieve days with over $3M in revenues. 

App results fluctuate based on short-term conditions. Most apps also got a boost from the growth of stablecoins on Solana, after USDC supply rose above 12B tokens and USDC broke above 2B. 

Solana trading tools and memes boost revenues

The network is still far down from its peak revenue day on January 20, when fees reached $28.89M during the launch of the Official Trump (TRUMP) token. Since then, Solana fell to a lower baseline, with revenues driven by a mix of lending protocols and DEX. 

Despite the higher app revenues, fewer addresses engaged in Solana compared to June. Meme generation also switched to whale wallets and automated activities. Additionally, trading bots were among the most active fee producers on Solana. 

Trading tools as a class were the major source of revenues, followed by meme token trading. Solana still requires trading facilities, including routing services, bots, MEV services, and others, to complete a trade. The network is also separately producing block fees for its validators. 

While lending and DeFi are growing, the app share is still small compared to the use cases linked to token trading. 

Whales return to Solana

SOL whales returned to Solana in July, once again a far cry from the January celebrity token era. Despite this, a total of five ‘Solana Lords’ held more than 5M SOL for the month. 

The Solana Lords metric is at the highest level for 2025, after some whales moved away following January’s rise in celebrity meme tokens. 

In addition to whale activity, Solana’s liveliness peaked around the middle of the month, with 17.93% of the supply turning active. SOL is viewed as the next potential valuable asset for ETFs and corporate treasuries, leading to a rush to acquire or move tokens. 

The native SOL token was up 11.3% net for the whole month, and is up 8.3% net in the third quarter to date. The token gained 24.2% in the first quarter, retaining its momentum. SOL recovered to $167.62 after the latest market dip, after recovering the $200 price range briefly.

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