Solana Has Ignite Fresh Debate Over the Pecking Order of Smart-Contract Platforms

Sygnum, the Swiss- and Singapore-regulated digital-asset banking group, has ignited fresh debate over the pecking order of smart-contract platforms

Sygnum, the Swiss and Singapore-regulated digital-asset banking group, has ignited fresh debate over the pecking order of smart-contract platforms with the 8 May publication of its “Digital Nugget” commentary, pointedly titled Is Solana overtaking Ethereum?

Solana Vs. Ethereum

In the report, Sygnum’s research desk acknowledges that Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) retains an “undisputed” lead in terms of both revenues and institutional adoption, yet concludes that the market narrative has swung decisively in Solana’s (CRYPTO: SOL) favour—a reversal dramatic enough for the bank to describe Solana as the system currently “overtaking” its older rival in mind-share if not in terms of the absolute fundamentals.

“Ethereum’s strategic pivot […] has to a 5-10 percent outperformance of Ether over Solana in the past 2-3 months,” the note observes, crediting the chain’s refocused roadmap on main-net scalability and user-experience. Nonetheless, the authors concede that “sentiment on Ethereum remains poor for now” despite its “continued leading position and still superior revenue generation.”

Sygnum’s analysts dissect the often-conflated metrics of fees, revenues and token value. While Solana has recently “dominated in terms of fee generation,” its protocol income “continues to substantially lag Ethereum (with the exception of the brief period around the issuance of the Trump family tokens on Solana.” The bank quantifies the gap at roughly two-to-two-and-a-half-times in favour of ETH—an edge that endures even after Solana’s frenetic surge in retail transaction volumes.

Layer-2 dynamics on Ethereum, often criticised for siphoning activity away from the main chain, receive a balanced treatment. The report notes that rollups have “led the market to see Ether as less valuable,” but adds a little-noticed parallel: “a comparable issue affecting the value of the Solana tokens is overlooked.” Because “most of the fees are paid to validators and do not go to increase the value of the Solana token,” Solana’s own monetary premium may be equally vulnerable.

Token-economic self-help is not on the immediate horizon: a community proposal to tweak Solana’s inflation schedule—an initiative Sygnum says “would have had a similar effect” to ETH’s fee-burn mechanic—“was conclusively voted down recently.”

Relative Market Capitalisation

Capitalisation tells a different story of relative runway. With Solana valued at roughly one-third of Ether but already generating half its revenues, Sygnum calculates “more room for Solana to outperform – especially with the tailwind of a better narrative and sentiment.” Even so, the report cautions that Solana’s income stream is “highly concentrated in the memecoin sector” and hence judged by investors as “less stable.” The implication: valuation discounts may be rational rather than sentimental.

But stifling a smile at the thought of Magic Spam tokens propping up the world’s fourth-largest crypto is a good starting point for considering what Sygnum terms the “greater context” of the two blockchains.

Ethereum’s edge in institutional use-cases provides the counter-weight. “Tokenisation, stablecoins, and DeFi are the use-cases that are showing traction and have the support of governments, regulators, and traditional financial institutions,” Sygnum writes, noting Ethereum’s 57% share of tokenised assets—augmented by a further 20% on its Layer-2 cohort zkSync.

A Case in Point

BlackRock’s (NYSE:BLK) flagship BUIDL fund, for example, keeps “93% of its assets on Ethereum,” a decision the asset manager links to the network’s “decentralization, credibility and security.” By contrast, Solana’s slice of the tokenisation pie “remains below 3%,” and its year-to-date doubling of stablecoin share leaves it “just above 5%,” still an order of magnitude behind Ethereum. The area where Solana has moved the needle most convincingly is DeFi total value locked: its share has climbed from 9.5% to 11.5% against Ethereum’s slide from 63.5% to 55% since January.

“The narratives continue to strongly favour Solana,” Sygnum concedes, even after Ethereum Foundation’s internal reshuffle and public vow to “adjust its go-to-market strategy and to clarify and articulate the value proposition of the PoS vision.” Yet narrative alone will not decide custody mandates or settlement rails for traditional finance.

“We do not yet see convincing signs that Solana would be the preferred choice as Ethereum’s security, stability and longevity are highly prized by institutional investors and global financial institutions,” the bank concludes, reminding readers that network effects in crypto “are very hard to overcome – just as they are in other tech fields such as social media.”

Indeed, history’s roll-call of “Ethereum killers” is