Solana Hits 100,000 TPS—But There’s a Catch
Over the weekend, Solana’s network briefly handled over 100,000 transactions per second—at least on paper. Mert Mumtaz, co-founder of Solana developer tools firm Helius, shared the milestone on social media, calling it a first for a major blockchain.
The spike happened late Sunday, with one block processing 43,016 successful transactions (and 50 failures). That pushed the total TPS to roughly 107,540, at least for a moment. But here’s the thing: most of those weren’t actual trades or transfers. Instead, they were lightweight “noop” program calls—basically placeholder transactions that don’t do much beyond keeping the network busy.
Why Noop Transactions Matter
Solana requires every transaction to include at least one instruction. For cases where no real action is needed, developers use noop calls—a way to meet the requirement without heavy computation. These calls are useful for stress-testing the network, but they don’t reflect real-world usage like payments or DeFi swaps.
Mumtaz argued that even with noop transactions dominating, the test shows Solana could theoretically handle 80,000 to 100,000 TPS for simpler operations like token transfers or oracle updates. Maybe. But that’s a big “if.”
The Reality of Solana’s Throughput
In everyday use, Solana’s performance is far lower. Right now, Solscan puts total TPS around 3,700—but even that’s misleading. About two-thirds of those transactions are votes, which validators constantly submit to keep the network running. Strip those out, and real throughput drops to roughly 1,000 to 1,050 TPS, depending on who you ask.
That’s still fast compared to many blockchains, but it’s nowhere near six figures. And honestly, most of Solana’s activity lately hasn’t been high-finance DeFi—it’s memecoins.
Memecoins Keep Solana Busy
Pump.fun, a platform for minting and trading memecoins, accounts for 62% of Solana’s total value locked. DeFi activity has grown, too, with the chain’s TVL nearing $10.7 billion—close to its January peak. But let’s be real: the hype still leans heavily toward speculative tokens.
As for SOL’s price, it dipped over the weekend, sliding from $208 to $187. It’s still down 36% from its all-time high earlier this year. So while the network might flex its speed occasionally, the bigger picture is, well, messier.
Solana’s got potential, no doubt. But whether it can sustain real-world demand at scale—not just noop-fueled spikes—remains an open question.
