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▲ Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP)/ChatGPT generated image
Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) are shaking Ethereum's position, leveraging transaction speed and institutional payment networks, respectively. However, 24/7 Wall St. pointed out that the real battleground is not simply the 'Ethereum killer' debate, but rather liquidity, the developer ecosystem, and institutional funding control.
According to 24/7 Wall St. on May 31 (local time), Solana recorded weekly decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume of $11.49 billion in April 2026, surpassing Ethereum (ETH)'s $7.62 billion. XRP processes cross-border transactions within 5 seconds, while traditional banking takes 1 to 3 days for the same payment. Both networks are being discussed as candidates to replace Ethereum among their supporters, but the article assessed that Ethereum still dominates institutional funding pools.
Ethereum's strengths lie in its decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity and developer base. As of May 2026, Ethereum held $45.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance, accounting for approximately 53% of the global market. Its active developer count was 31,869, surpassing Solana's 17,708. The volume of Ethereum-based tokenized US Treasury products also reached an all-time high of $8 billion in May 2026, doubling in six months. Institutions such as JPMorgan, BlackRock, and Franklin Templeton are building tokenized products on Ethereum's infrastructure.
Solana is capitalizing on areas where Ethereum has shown weaknesses in cost and processing speed. Solana's daily active addresses are more than six times that of Ethereum, and its transaction fees are approximately $0.00025. This contrasts with Ethereum's simple transaction fees, which range from $0.5 to $3. Solana currently records throughput levels of 3,000 to 5,000 TPS, while the Ethereum mainnet operates at 15 to 30 TPS. Jump Crypto's Firedancer client was launched on the Solana mainnet in December 2025, with a long-term goal of processing 1 million transactions per second.
Solana's next game-changer is the Alpenglow upgrade. This upgrade is in the validator testing phase and aims to reduce transaction finality time from the existing 12.8 seconds to between 100 and 150 milliseconds. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko stated at Consensus Miami 2026 that if testing proceeds smoothly, Alpenglow could be applied to the mainnet as early as Q3 2026. The article pointed out that sub-150ms finality could create a favorable environment for real-time order books and tokenized financial products, but also highlighted the significant reduction in Solana network revenue after the memecoin craze cooled down as a risk factor.
XRP is growing its presence in institutional payments and tokenized real-world assets (RWA). The volume of tokenized real-world assets on the XRP Ledger exceeded $3 billion by the end of April 2026, increasing by 59% in 30 days. On May 6, JPMorgan's Kinexys platform, Mastercard, Ripple, and Ondo Finance completed the first cross-border, interbank tokenized government bond payment on the XRP Ledger. This payment was processed within 5 seconds, even outside normal banking hours. Société Générale launched a Euro stablecoin on the XRP Ledger in February, Aviva Investors entered a tokenization partnership with Ripple, and Deutsche Bank integrated Ripple's software stack into its cross-border payment system. 24/7 Wall St. pointed out that whether Solana can create continuous on-chain demand through its upgrade cycles, and whether XRP can translate legislative catalysts into actual token demand, will be key to future competition.
*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*
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