Solana Crosses 100K TPS in Stress Test, Real World Speed Still Far Lower

August 18, 2025 — Solana’s network briefly crossed the 100,000 transactions-per-second (TPS) threshold in a stress test over the weekend, sparking debate over the blockchain’s scalability limits and real-world utility.

Stress test pushes Solana to new highs

Helius co-founder Mert Mumtaz revealed that Solana recorded over 100K TPS on its mainnet for the first time. The figure was driven by lightweight “noop” program calls transactions that satisfy technical requirements without carrying out token transfers or smart contract activity.

While these program calls don’t reflect everyday blockchain use, they demonstrated the network’s raw capacity under pressure. Mumtaz argued that this suggests Solana could handle 80–100K TPS in more practical scenarios like transfers or oracle updates.

Real TPS paints a different picture

Despite the eye-catching number, Solana’s real performance is significantly lower. On-chain data from Solscan shows throughput closer to 3,700 TPS, with nearly two-thirds of those being validator vote transactions. After filtering those out, actual user-facing activity is only ~1,050 TPS, according to Chainspect.

This means Solana still outpaces many rival blockchains, but its real-world speeds remain far below the stress-test peak.

Memecoins drive Solana’s usage

Much of Solana’s activity continues to come from memecoin trading. Pump.fun, a platform for minting and trading such tokens now commands 62% of the chain’s total value locked (TVL). While this keeps transaction volume high, it also highlights Solana’s dependence on a narrow use case, raising questions about long-term adoption beyond speculative trading.

What’s next for scalability

Solana’s community is now eyeing the Alpenglow consensus proposal (SIMD-0326), which could drastically cut block finality times from 12.8 seconds to just 150 milliseconds. If approved, this upgrade would enhance Solana’s responsiveness and efficiency, bringing it closer to handling sustained high-volume activity.

Market reaction

SOL, the network’s native token, slid back to $187 over the weekend after touching $208 earlier in the week. It remains down 36% from January’s all-time high of $293, according to CoinGecko.

Still, with scalability tests pushing new boundaries and upgrades on the horizon, Solana continues to position itself as one of the fastest blockchains in development even if its real-world speed has yet to match its stress-test potential.