# Solana vs Ethereum: Fees, Activity and Revenue

> Solana vs Ethereum each month: fees paid, median fee, transactions, active addresses, burn against issuance and stablecoin supply, on matched definitions.

Markdown copy of https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/solana-vs-ethereum

**Question:** How do Solana and Ethereum compare on fees, activity and revenue this month?

- Kind: Report in Voltfin Folio
- Topic: [Solana](https://voltfincrypto.com/topics/solana)
- Chains: Solana, Ethereum
- Status: Planned. The data is not published yet, so this page states no figure; each figure will open its receipt when it is.

Solana and Ethereum are the two most compared smart-contract chains, and comparisons between them often use different definitions on each side: transactions with or without validator votes, fees with or without layer 2 networks, revenue as all fees or only the part burned. This report sets them side by side each month, with one written definition per measure and the same month boundaries on both chains.

It covers fees and the median fee per transaction, transactions and active addresses, how much each chain burned against what it issued and stablecoin supply at month end. Ethereum figures are for mainnet, with layer 2 networks on a line of their own. Every amount is pinned to the last block of the month on each chain and links to a receipt.

## Blueprint

### The month in one table

Solana and Ethereum on one line each: fees, median fee, transactions, active addresses, net issuance and stablecoin supply, with the change from last month.

Cites: Fees paid per chain; Median fee per transaction; Transactions per chain; Net issuance per chain.

### What users paid

Total fees and the median fee per transaction on each chain in native tokens and USD, with how they moved through the month.

Cites: Fees in native token; Fees in USD; Median fee per transaction.

### How much each chain was used

Transactions and active addresses on matched rules, with failed transactions apart and Ethereum's layer 2 activity on its own line.

Cites: Transactions; Active addresses; Failed share of transactions; Layer 2 transactions.

### Burn against issuance

What each chain burned and what it issued to validators and stakers in the month, and the change in supply that results.

Cites: Fees burned; Issuance; Net supply change.

### Stablecoins on each chain

Month-end USDC and USDT supply on each chain and its change over the month, counting native issuance only.

Cites: USDC supply per chain; USDT supply per chain; Monthly change in stablecoin supply.

### Definitions and receipts

How each measure is defined on each chain, the blocks that close the month and the price feeds used, so any figure can be checked.

## How it will be measured

- The month closes at each chain's last block before midnight UTC, and every figure for the month is read up to that block on both chains.
- Transactions and active addresses use one rule on both chains: included user transactions and distinct senders, with Solana's former vote transactions left out.
- Fees are what users paid: gas used times effective gas price on Ethereum and meta.fee on Solana; the median fee is taken over each chain's successful transactions.
- Burn and issuance: Ethereum's burned base fees against its consensus-layer issuance, and the burned half of Solana's base fees against the inflation rewards paid in the month's epochs.
- Stablecoin supply is USDC and USDT totalSupply() on Ethereum and the mint supply of the same coins on Solana at month end, valued with Chainlink feeds at those blocks.

## Data it needs

- `chain_activity_daily` (to build): Transactions, active sending addresses, new addresses, contracts created and gas used on each chain per day, counted from blocks and transactions.
- `chain_fees_daily` (to build): Fees paid per chain per day in the native token: base fee and priority fee percentiles, total fees, and the share burned where the chain burns fees.
- `eth_supply_daily` (to build): Daily ETH issued to validators, ETH burned through the EIP-1559 base fee, and the resulting net change in ETH supply.
- `staking_networks_daily` (to build): Staked supply, staking ratio, validators and nominal rewards per proof-of-stake network per day.
- `stablecoin_supply_daily` (published): Native supply of each USD and EUR stablecoin on each covered chain at the chain's last block of each day, from totalSupply() reads, with bridged copies kept apart.
- `native_prices_daily` (to build): Reference prices of major assets read from on-chain oracle feeds (Chainlink latestRoundData) at each day's last block, with each round's update time.
- Source: Ethereum transactions and receipts (sender, gas used, effective gas price), with base_fee_per_gas times gas_used per block for the burn
- Source: Ethereum consensus-layer rewards per epoch, for issuance
- Source: Solana blocks: non-vote transactions, fee payers and meta.fee; inflation rewards per epoch
- Source: USDC and USDT totalSupply() on Ethereum and their mint supply on Solana at month-end blocks
- Source: Chainlink ETH/USD and SOL/USD feeds at the month's last block

## Questions

### Is Solana cheaper than Ethereum?

For a typical transaction, Solana's median fee has generally been far below Ethereum mainnet's, while Ethereum's layer 2 networks narrow the gap. The report compares the median fee on both chains each month, which shows the size of the difference for the period rather than a single snapshot.

### Which chain has more users?

The report compares distinct senders on both chains under one rule. Addresses are not people and both counts include bots. Many Ethereum users also transact on layer 2 networks instead of mainnet, so layer 2 activity is shown on its own line.

### Which chain earns more revenue?

It depends on the definition. Total fees, fees burned and fees minus issuance can each rank the two chains differently, and the order has changed from one period to another. The report shows every part, so the comparison can be made on the definition a reader uses.

### Why compare burn against issuance?

Both chains pay validators with new tokens and burn part of the fees users pay. When the burn is larger than issuance, supply shrinks; when it is smaller, holders are diluted. Comparing the two shows how far each chain's usage offsets the cost of its security.

### Why are layer 2 networks not added to Ethereum?

Layer 2 networks have their own fees, users and sequencers, and pay Ethereum only for settlement and data. Adding them would mix two kinds of activity, so the report shows them on a separate line and compares like with like.

## Glossary

- **Issuance**: New tokens the protocol creates to pay validators and stakers: consensus rewards on Ethereum, inflation rewards on Solana.
- **Base fee burn**: The part of fees destroyed by the protocol: Ethereum's EIP-1559 base fee and half of Solana's base fees.
- **SPL token**: Solana's token standard; a token's total supply is recorded in its mint account.

## Related apps

- [Solana Network Stats: TPS, Fees and Active Wallets](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/solana-network-stats)
- [Ethereum Monthly Report: Fees, Supply, Staking and L2s](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/ethereum-monthly-report)
- [Blockchain Revenue Rankings: Monthly League Table](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/blockchain-revenue-rankings)
- [Stablecoins on Solana: Supply by Coin](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/stablecoins-on-solana)
- [Ethereum Network Revenue: Daily Fees, Tips and Burn](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/ethereum-network-revenue)
- [Solana Staking Yield (APY) and SOL Staked](https://voltfincrypto.com/apps/solana-staking-yield)

Build it in Voltfin Studio: https://app.voltfincrypto.com/signup?next=%2F