Solana has emerged as the fastest blockchain in terms of processing speed, with a record-breaking 91 million transactions in a single day. According to CoinGecko, Solana achieved an impressive 1,504 transactions per second (TPS) during the memecoin frenzy, making it 46 times faster than Ethereum and over 5 times faster than Polygon. Despite this, Solana has only reached 1.6% of its theoretical maximum speed of 65,000 TPS, leading to network congestion and questions about future scalability.
Sui, another non-EVM blockchain, comes in as the second-fastest with a peak TPS of 854 driven by the on-chain game Sui 8192. Other notable non-EVM blockchains include TON with 175 TPS and Near Protocol with 118 TPS. On the lower end of the spectrum, Aptos registered 49 TPS, Starknet had 12 TPS, Bitcoin achieved 11 TPS, and Thorchain recorded 2 TPS. Non-EVM blockchains outperformed EVM and EVM-compatible blockchains with an average peak TPS of 284 compared to 74 TPS for the largest EVM-based blockchains.
Binance Smart Chain (BSC) stands out among the EVM blockchains with a real TPS of 378, followed by Polygon with 190 TPS. Ethereum scaling solutions and layer 2 solutions have yet to surpass other layer 1 blockchains in terms of processing speed. The lower number of on-chain transactions on Ethereum scaling solutions results in slower realized TPS for these blockchains. In total, Ethereum and its ten largest scaling solutions achieved a combined real TPS of 500, surpassing BSC but still lagging behind Solana and Sui.
Over the past year, 24 out of the 25 blockchains analyzed experienced their highest real TPS, driven by the rise of inscriptions and memecoin speculation. The cryptocurrency market has seen the launch of over 1 million new tokens since April, with Ethereum hosting over 370,000 new tokens and Solana boasting 640,000 new tokens, mostly memecoins. As on-chain activity reaches new heights, the need for scalability and faster processing speeds becomes increasingly important for blockchain networks to handle the growing demand.
In conclusion, the speed and scalability of blockchain networks like Solana, Sui, and Binance Smart Chain have been put to the test amid increasing on-chain activity and the rise of new tokens. While Solana leads the pack in terms of processing speed, other non-EVM blockchains also demonstrate impressive TPS numbers. Ethereum and its scaling solutions continue to work on improving scalability to keep up with the demand, but have yet to surpass the fastest layer 1 blockchains. As the blockchain industry evolves, advancements in technology and upgrades will be crucial to meeting the needs of a growing and dynamic market.
