Solana Leads the Charge in Blockchain Payments, Says Bernstein

Amid rising market liquidity, improved investor sentiment, and stablecoin dynamics, the Solana network has “taken the lead” in the push for blockchain payments, reports The Block, citing a report by Bernstein analysts.

“A major shift in this cycle is Solana’s dominant market share (43%) in terms of stablecoin transfer value, compared to the previous rally’s market leader, Ethereum,” the experts stated. 

Bernstein believes Solana’s single-layer architecture, as opposed to Ethereum’s complex L2 networks, provides direct access to cryptocurrency exchanges. 

Furthermore, high throughput and low transaction costs have led to an increase in stablecoin settlements on the network. 

However, in terms of the volume of native stablecoins issued on the network, Solana still lags behind Ethereum, with figures at $2.2 billion and $26.4 billion, respectively. 

“The value of stablecoins recorded on the blockchain indicates a strong trend of digital dollar adoption in the crypto trading ecosystem, including as a currency for cross-border payments,” the report notes.

Despite pilot projects with Visa and Shopify, analysts noted that Solana has yet to penetrate broader consumer payments or the B2B sector.

Among the main obstacles to mass adoption, Bernstein identified scalability issues. They believe Solana needs to increase its throughput 15-20 times—from approximately 700 to over 10,000 transactions per second. 

Earlier this year, Solana accounted for 49.3% of global investor interest in blockchain ecosystems, according to CoinGecko.

According to a forecast by Colosseum co-founder and former head of growth at Solana Foundation, Matty Taylor, the network is predicted to surpass Ethereum in the number of consumer Web3 applications.