Solana Smashes Quarterly Transaction Records in Q3 2026

Solana's network processed an unprecedented number of transactions in Q3 2026, reaching a record high of over 14.2 billion. This marks a 45% increase from the previous quarter and surpasses any other quarterly total in the network's history.

The daily active addresses averaged around 4.1 million in Q3, up 12% from Q2. Average daily transactions reached 120 million, an 8% quarter-over-quarter increase. On its busiest days, Solana handled more than 169 million transactions.

The number of wallets holding SOL rose to 8.38 million, a 20.5% increase from the prior quarter. The number of stablecoin holders on Solana reached 13.07 million, up 16% over the same period. On-chain card payment volume exceeded $262.7 million in Q3, already surpassing the entire total for Q2.

Solana implemented upgrades to its network in late July and mid-September, which helped increase compute limits and transaction processing capacity. Despite these changes, block times remained steady near 400 milliseconds. The number of successful non-vote transactions also reached a new record, with approximately 3.2 billion transactions processed in September.

The SOL price was around $117 in early October 2026, with an estimated circulating market cap between $60 billion and $70 billion. While daily trading volumes declined during the period, wallet counts increased by 20.5%. This could indicate that holders are settling in for the long term rather than flipping tokens.