Solana has emerged as the dominant blockchain in decentralized finance (DeFi) for 2025, while BNB Chain is focusing on performance upgrades and rapid user growth to stay competitive.
Key Takeaways
- Solana leads 2025’s DeFi TVL with over $23 billion, outpacing Base, BNB Chain, and other networks.
- BNB Chain underwent major performance upgrades, reducing fees by 98% and pushing block times below one second.
- Daily active users on BNB Chain surged to 4.8 million, with over 15 million daily transactions driven by meme trading and stablecoin incentives.
- Despite lagging in fee revenue, BNB Chain doubled stablecoin supply and achieved record token burns in 2025.
What Happened?
Solana took the top spot in DeFi total value locked (TVL) with $23.01 billion, driven by its high-speed, low-cost infrastructure. Meanwhile, BNB Chain, although trailing in revenue rankings, saw substantial user growth and technical enhancements, positioning itself for a stronger 2026.
Top chains by fees generated in 2025:
— Nansen 🧭 (@nansen_ai) January 2, 2026
🥇 @solana – $605.66M
🥈 @trondao – $581.65M
🥉 @Ethereum – $521.98M
4th: @BNBChain – $259.06M
5th: @Bitcoin – $172.53M pic.twitter.com/oDTfbQQ4yJ
Solana’s Surge to the Top
Solana’s dominance in DeFi has been driven by its unmatched transaction throughput and cost-efficiency. In 2025, it not only surpassed other Layer-1 and Layer-2 competitors in TVL but also led all networks in fee generation with $605.66 million.
- Solana attracted both retail and institutional users thanks to its ability to handle thousands of transactions per second with minimal fees.
- Leading protocols like Jupiter, MarginFi, and Marinade Finance contributed to the liquidity and usage spike.
- Solana also pulled in $1.4 billion in revenue and maintained nearly 40 million active addresses, cementing its position as a hub for both speculative and institutional DeFi activity.
- Spot ETF regulatory approval anticipated in late 2025 further boosted confidence in Solana’s long-term viability.
BNB Chain’s Strategic Shift
Despite falling behind in fee revenue with $259.06 million compared to Solana, Tron, and Ethereum, BNB Chain focused on infrastructure improvements and user engagement.
- The Lorentz and Maxwell upgrades introduced parallel execution and slashed block times from 3 seconds to just 0.75 seconds, with a target of 0.25 seconds.
- These upgrades led to a 98% reduction in transaction fees, enhancing scalability without compromising validator rewards.
- The chain reached 4.8 million daily active users and processed over 15 million daily transactions, partly thanks to new platforms like four.meme and Aster.
- A gasless stablecoin promotion significantly boosted transaction volume and doubled the stablecoin supply to $14 billion, while real-world asset adoption hit over $1.8 billion.
- The network also achieved structural growth according to CoinMarketCap, with over 6.25 million BNB tokens burned across multiple quarters.
How Other Chains Performed?
- Tron secured second place in fee revenue with $581.65 million, largely driven by its low-cost utility for global USDT transfers.
- Ethereum remained strong with $521.98 million in fees and over $93 billion TVL, though memecoin activity slowed.
- Base, the Layer-2 solution backed by Coinbase, climbed to third in TVL with $3.29 billion, attracting developers looking for low gas and Ethereum security.
CoinLaw’s Takeaway
In my experience covering blockchain ecosystems, Solana’s rise isn’t just hype. Its speed, low costs, and developer-friendly design are turning it into a serious contender for mainstream finance. But I also found BNB Chain’s transformation fascinating. They clearly knew they couldn’t out-fee Ethereum or Solana, so they doubled down on performance and accessibility. The fee cuts, blazing-fast blocks, and onboarding-focused features like gasless stablecoin transactions and meme launchpads show they’re playing the long game. If they can maintain momentum, 2026 could be a breakout year.
