Morning Minute: Solana Hits 100K TPS

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

Crypto majors are slightly green after volatile day; BTC at $115,600
Tom Lee buys $1.7B in ETH in the past week, becomes 2nd largest DAT
Tether signs on former White House crypto director Bo Hines as advisor
Chamath launches $250M SPAC, includes DeFi as 1 of 4 pillars
LIGHT jumps 50% to a new ATH as revenue & buybacks increase

⚡ Solana Hits 100K TPS

The Solana network just set a new throughput record.

And it’s coming at a very important time.

📌 What Happened

Solana briefly processed over 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) in a live stress test.

That’s well above Visa’s ~65,000 TPS benchmark and 25x Solana’s normal throughput.

But the test used “no-op” transactions – empty instructions that don’t represent real-world transfers or swaps.

Today, actual economic activity on Solana still averages closer to 1,000–1,400 TPS once validator votes are excluded.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“The main point I want to get across is that Solana needs more efficient programs and an efficient token standard. High capacity enables the world’s markets to all be on-chain. Without the capacity, we can only ever hope to support a handful.” – Dr. Cavey PHD
- He added that with efficient programs, Solana could realistically hit 80k–100k token transfers per second, or 10k–20k swaps, estimating deployment could happen “three months at best, six months at worst.”
“It means that Solana is ready to support web-scale applications today.” – Kyle Samani (Multicoin Capital)

🧠 Why It Matters

There are a few key items of note here.

First, this milestone shows Solana’s raw technical ceiling but also the gap between stress-test performance and live user activity.

The real unlock lies in upcoming upgrades:

Alpenglow, a consensus overhaul, could cut block finality from ~12.8 seconds to 100–150 milliseconds, with a community vote already underway.
Firedancer, a Jump Crypto validator client, has tested above 1M TPS and is expected to hit mainnet in 2025, improving throughput and decentralization.

Together, these upgrades could bring Solana’s theoretical performance closer to reality, positioning it as the leading chain for consumer apps and payments at web-scale.

Now why does that matter?

Because a strong foundational narrative has never mattered more for crypto majors and blockchains.

Tom Lee and Larry Fink have taken the fundamental narrative that Ethereum builders and the Foundation have been building for years – and they’ve packaged it up and are delivering it to Wall St.

Solana needs its spokesmen now. But the pitch is there.

Solana is the lightning-fast chain; the Visa of blockchains.

With SOL ETFs likely coming in Q4 and speculation of some SOL TreasuryCos as well, Solana is positioned well to take its seat at the Wall St crypto table alongside BTC and ETH.

All because – speed matters…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

Crypto majors were slightly green on the day; BTC +1% at $115,500, ETH +1% at $4,300, XRP +1% at $3.01, SOL +1% at $182
MNT (+12%), OKB (+12%) an S (+6%) led top movers
Solana hit 100k TPS in a test environment over the weekend
Chamath is launching a $250M SPAC which includes DeFi as 1 of its 4 pillars (others are Energy, AI and Defense)
Tether hired former White House crypto director Bo Hines as an advisor
Google upped its stake in Bitcoin Minter TeraWulf to 14% amid a deal to expand the company’s AI data center capacity
Qubic has turned its focus to Dogecoin after targeting Monero with a 51% takeover last week
Japan is eyeing its first JPY-pegged Stablecoin, which its financial regulator may approve the JPYC yen‑denominated stablecoin in the coming months
Figure Technologies, a blockchain-based lending platform, has filed for an IPO, with its offering led by Goldman Sachs, Jefferies Financial Group, and Bank of America
Illinois’ Pritzker signs crypto consumer protection bills into law

In Corporate Treasuries

In Memes

Memecoin leaders are mixed on the day; DOGE -1%, Shiba +1%, PEPE +1%, PENGU +2%, BONK +1%, TRUMP -1%, SPX -1%, and FARTCOIN +2%
LIGHT hit $220M FDV and a new ATH overnight, as the team has now bought back $1.9M of its token (2.28%)

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

🤖 AI x Crypto

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

Overall market cap down 1% to $12.7B, leaders were red
FARTCOIN (+2%), VIRTUAL (+1%), TIBBIR (+4%), ai16z (+1%) & VVV (+5%)
Opaium (+60%), NFTXBT (+20%) and Acolyt (+13%) led top movers
CAESAR made its debut at a $21.5M market cap

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

ETH NFT leaders were red again; Punks -1% at 48.9 ETH, Pudgy -3% at 12.4, BAYC even at 11.3 ETH
SUP Lotus Vaults (+40%) and Memeland Captainz (+12%) were notable top movers
Bitcoin NFTs were mostly even; Adderrels led again +7%
Abstract NFTs were mostly red, led by OCH Weapon (+29%)
Meebits saw its first “Upcycle Trade” as someone traded 6 floor Meebits for 1 Elephant