Solana Fee Lead Over Ethereum Shrinks To $5.8M A Week, From $26.2M

Solana still collects more fees than Ethereum, but the margin has almost vanished. The Solana fee lead was $5.8 million over the seven days to October 17, according to DefiLlama. A week earlier it was $26.2 million. Both gaps are our arithmetic from the daily chain totals.

How the Solana fee lead shrank

DefiLlama's chain figure adds up fees from the network itself and every app built on it. By that count Solana's total came to $81.2 million over the latest seven days, against $106.3 million the week before. That is a drop of about 24%. Ethereum went from $80.1 million to $75.5 million, a smaller fall of roughly 6%.

Solana lost far more than Ethereum did. On October 4 and 5 it took in $17.4 million and $16.8 million a day. By October 17 the figure had slid to $8.9 million.

Daily Solana chain fees in dollars for October 8 to 17, from the DefiLlama API. Source: DefiLlama.

Two pump protocols carry the Solana fee lead

The top two earners on Solana are PumpSwap at $22.5 million and pump.fun at $13.7 million over seven days. Together that is $36.2 million, about 45% of the chain's total. Take them out and Solana's remaining $45.0 million sits well under Ethereum's $75.5 million. That subtraction is ours, and it is a thought experiment, not an adjustment DefiLlama makes.

Our earlier piece on PumpSwap daily fees showed both protocols falling to their weakest readings in weeks. The Solana fee lead tracks that slide.

What Ethereum's side looks like

Ethereum's fees are spread more widely. Lido leads at $11.3 million, followed by Sky Lending at $6.7 million and Aave V3 at $6.5 million. Ethereum's own base-layer fees were $2.5 million over seven days, against $5.3 million for Solana's base layer.

Ethereum's daily total held between $8.4 million and $11.2 million for most of the week. The exception was October 15, when it jumped to $16.7 million. On October 17 Solana still came out ahead, $8.9 million to $8.4 million.

Daily Ethereum chain fees in dollars for October 8 to 17, from the DefiLlama API. Source: DefiLlama.

A longer look at the Solana fee lead

Go back a month and Solana looks comfortable. It collected $455.2 million against Ethereum's $348.3 million, so it was ahead by $106.9 million. The latest week ate a big part of that cushion.

Ethereum did win some days. It topped Solana on four of the last 30, and on 29 of the last 90, which is roughly one day in three. That gives some context for the latest week and its thin margin.

Other chains sit far behind on the same measure. DefiLlama shows Hyperliquid's chain at $36.9 million over seven days, BNB Chain at $15.7 million and Base at $12.0 million.

Read these as fee totals and nothing else. They are not profit, and they swing with trading activity and token prices. This article reports public data and is not advice to buy or sell SOL or ETH.