The Solana network has demonstrated explosive growth in payment processing, significantly outperforming both Web3 and traditional Web2 platforms. According to data from on-chain analytics provider Artemis, Solana's total payment volume grew by a staggering 755% year-over-year, exceeding $1.8 billion. This growth rate positions Solana as the leader in payment volume growth across all platforms, both crypto and traditional.
Business-to-business (B2B) payments on Solana have seen particularly dramatic expansion, surging by 9 times (9X) to reach $3.84 billion in just 16 months. For context, Artemis data from August 2025 showed stablecoin payment volume across all networks growing by 137% year-over-year, with B2B accounting for the largest share, highlighting Solana's disproportionate growth in this sector.
The network's dominance extends beyond payments. A previous report highlighted that Solana recorded $1.6 trillion in spot trading volume in 2025, accounting for 11.92% of the global spot market. This volume ranked it only behind Binance ($7.2 trillion) and ahead of major centralized exchanges like Bybit, Coinbase, and Bitget. Data from DefiLlama further shows that SOL's monthly volume on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) frequently outperformed rivals like Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) throughout 2025, peaking at $313.91 billion in January 2025.
However, this fundamental strength contrasts sharply with SOL's recent market performance. The asset is in a pronounced downtrend, down 9% over the last 7 days and more than 35% year-to-date, trading around $82.38 at the time of reporting. This decline has devastated Solana treasury firms, with Forward Industries and Solana Company seeing the value of their multi-million SOL holdings plummet. The price drop mirrored a liquidation event that wiped out over $300 million in long positions. Furthermore, spot Solana ETFs have recorded net outflows exceeding $10 million in February so far.
Adding to the bearish pressure, a Galaxy-linked wallet recently moved 200,000 SOL (worth roughly $16 million) to exchanges Binance, OKX, and Bybit. This influx of supply onto trading platforms has shifted the daily spot netflow positive by $1.95 million, interrupting a prolonged period of negative flows and raising concerns about potential selling pressure. Analysts note that SOL is trading within a well-defined descending channel, with critical support near $78. The price is currently caught between dense clusters of leverage, with short liquidations stacked just above current levels and significant liquidity below support, signaling potential for a sharp volatility expansion in either direction.
Network metrics also show changes, with Solana's daily validator count falling to its lowest level since 2021, below 800—a significant drop from a peak of 2,500 in early 2023. Reports suggest this may be a deliberate pruning effort by the Solana Foundation to offload underperforming nodes and improve network quality and reliability.
