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Solana logs over 14 billion transactions in Q3 2026, its busiest quarter yet
Network upgrades, stablecoin growth and on-chain payments helped push Solana to a record quarterly transaction count
Solana just had its busiest three months on record. The network processed more than 14 billion transactions in the third quarter of 2026, the highest quarterly total it has ever posted.
Research data puts the figure at approximately 14.2 billion, a 45% jump from the previous quarter.
The numbers behind the record
Daily active addresses averaged about 4.1 million in Q3, a 12% increase over Q2. Average daily transactions came in at 120 million, up 8% quarter-over-quarter.
On its busiest days, the network handled more than 169 million transactions.
Wallets holding SOL climbed to 8.38 million, a 20.5% increase from the prior quarter.
The number of stablecoin holders on Solana rose to 13.07 million, up 16% over the same period.
On-chain card payment volume reached $262.7 million in Q3, already surpassing the entire total for Q2.
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Upgrades did some of the heavy lifting
In late July, Solana rolled out SIMD-0286, a compute limit increase. In mid-September, the network transitioned to a new transaction format. Through both changes, block times held steady near 400 milliseconds.
The research also tracked successful non-vote transactions, which strip out the consensus messages validators send to keep the network in sync. September recorded approximately 3.2 billion successful non-vote transactions, the third consecutive monthly record.
What this means for SOL and the wider ecosystem
SOL was trading around $117 in early October 2026, with an estimated circulating market cap between $60 billion and $70 billion.
Daily trading volumes also declined during the period, even as on-chain activity climbed.
Wallet counts up 20.5% alongside lower trading volume could point toward holders settling in for the longer term rather than flipping tokens.
Stablecoin holders grew to 13.07 million, positioning Solana as a serious settlement layer for dollar-pegged tokens. Card payment volume of $262.7 million surpassed the prior quarter’s total before Q3 even wrapped.
Risks remain. Higher compute limits and a new transaction format put more strain on validators, and sustaining 400-millisecond block times under heavier loads is an ongoing test.