Solana (SOL) continues to dominate the speed race, boasting a staggering 1,504 transactions per second (TPS) at its peak, according to a recent CoinGecko study. This translates to a processing speed 46 times faster than Ethereum and 5 times faster than Polygon, solidifying Solana’s position as the fastest large-scale blockchain.
CoinGecko’s Methodology for Speed Benchmarking
To determine the champions of speed, CoinGecko analyzed the top 30 blockchains by Total Value Locked (TVL) using real or “realized” TPS as the benchmark. This metric represents a daily average, ensuring a fair comparison across different blockchains. It’s important to note that CoinGecko acknowledges potential discrepancies with other calculations due to the use of daily averages. Public information from blockchain explorers and Dune Analytics provided the data for this study.
Solana’s Power and Potential Pitfalls
Despite its impressive performance, Solana has only reached 1.6% of its theoretical maximum speed of 65,000 TPS. This raises questions about the network’s ability to handle even higher transaction volumes, especially with upcoming upgrades planned. While surging transactions propelled Solana to the top, it also caused network congestion, a challenge that needs to be addressed for sustained growth.
While Solana leads the pack, other blockchains outside the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem deserve recognition. Sui, another non-EVM blockchain, secured the second spot with a peak TPS of 854, fueled by the popularity of the on-chain game Sui 8192. Other notable non-EVM players include TON and Near Protocol, boasting 175 TPS and 118 TPS, respectively. Interestingly, the average peak TPS for non-EVM blockchains is a staggering 3.9 times faster than their EVM counterparts.
EVM Blockchains: A Tale of Two Speeds
Among EVM-based blockchains, BNB Smart Chain (BSC) emerged as the speed leader with a recorded 378 TPS during the inscriptions-driven activity surge of December 2023. While impressive, this falls short of Sui’s peak by nearly half, placing BSC in third place overall.
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Polygon and Ethereum Scaling Solutions
The inscriptions craze also impacted Polygon, the leading Ethereum scaling solution. It managed a peak TPS of 190 in November 2023, solidifying its position as the fastest solution for Ethereum and placing it 8.4 times ahead of Ethereum itself. Notably, Ethereum, when combined with its ten largest scaling solutions, reaches a total real TPS of 500. This surpasses BSC but remains slower than both Solana and Sui.
The study highlights a significant trend: nearly all 25 analyzed blockchains achieved their highest real TPS within the past year. This points towards a rising tide of on-chain activity, fueled by factors like inscriptions and meme coin speculation.
Solana, with its undeniable speed advantage, is currently the king of the TPS race. However, questions about network congestion and its ability to scale efficiently remain. As the blockchain landscape evolves, the battle for speed supremacy promises to be an exciting one to watch.
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