Solana has established a unique role for investors and developers, managing to become the best cryptocurrency by market capitalization with its trading ticker SOL, and the second-best blockchain for developers, researchers, financial institutions, and more. As a blockchain solution, Solana is utilized by prominent companies such as Visa, Google, PayPal, Fidelity, SAP, and Circle, among others, whose services and scaling operations have been advanced thanks to the blockchain. And when it comes to price charts, dashboards, and trading widgets, the SOL/USD pair consistently ranks among the most active. Its strong market performance and liquidity have made it a natural entry point for newcomers, who often begin their crypto journey by learning how to convert USD to Solana and Solana to USD.

Solana added 11,534 developers in 2025, being outrun only by the top’s leader, Ethereum, which added 16,181. And Bitcoin landed the third place. Nevertheless, it won the prize for the best ecosystem in support of new developers in last year’s yearly report of Electric Capital, a Californian venture capital company. Solana leads in terms of market attention and growing momentum, even though Ethereum remains the frontrunner in terms of the number of developers. Why, and how has it managed to remain a top choice in an industry where competition for user adoption and technological advancements is so fierce? We’ll discover more down below.

Key technical upgrades and roadmap moves

Two challenges in the network’s structure transformed several engineering plans into a massive, organized roadmap for 2025. Congestion, validator client monoculture, and sporadic interruptions were natural consequences of the growth in decentralized applications (dApps) and the rapid pace at which users flocked to Solana. However, this is not all – the vastness of blockchain networks and competing layer-1s within the industry also prompted Solana to enhance its services in order to maintain its edge. Demand and high competition make users and customers increasingly picky and encouraged to come with the toughest of expectations, both regarding the decreased latency in production systems and deterministic finality – the latter being the feature that makes it possible for transactions to be irreversible after they’re added to the chain.

The Solana Foundation knows that competition is about leveling up and innovating or being left behind.

2025 roadmap

This year’s roadmap comprises solutions to mitigate customer concentration risk, also known as single-client risk – the financial threat of relying excessively on a single client or a small-scale group of clients for a significant revenue share. Goals include reducing confirmation windows and delivering user ergonomics that decrease production deployment costs.

Management associated with the roadmap include: Jito Labs, Solana Labs, Firedancer, validator operators, and a few other huge ecosystem funds.

Firedancer and validator clients

One of the boldest upgrades in Solana’s near-term roadmap is Firedancer, a new, high-performance validator client developed by Jump Crypto, which is expected to significantly improve network reliability, scalability, throughput, and efficiency. Essentially, it’s a comprehensive revision of the network’s validator software, developed in the C++ programming language. Internal tests revealed that it significantly enhanced throughput during trials, increasing the number of transactions per second the network can process.

Firedancer established a new standard for network clients, allowing the processing of 1MN transactions per second on a 32-core system via its tiled construction. Each contributing system is designed for isolation and speed, from storage to networking, enabling resistance to errors and efficient scaling.

Agave is another client, serving as a fork or a model of the existing validator client, developed for performance and reliability improvements, too.

More computing capacity

Solana’s developers have been actively working to increase the network’s compute capacity, allowing more complex transactions and smart contract logic per block. For instance, the SIMD-0286 proposal is pushing the block compute limit from 60MN Compute Units (CU) to 100MN – a big deal for devs writing compute-heavy contracts or those wanting more gas-like flexibility.

Relatedly, the roadmap suggests doubling block space and implementing a more efficient consensus algorithm that removes vote transactions, accelerates block times, and improves finality, all of which mean that:

• The network can squeeze more transactions in one block, which is critical for on-chain games, exchanges, and DeFi platforms
• The network reaches that point where transactions are no longer reversible (finality) faster, reducing the attack window for exploits or reorgs
• Transaction confirmation times decline, reducing delays for users and improving developer flexibility.

Why devs choose Solana

The “second best” ecosystem for devs doesn’t mean that everyone should go to Solana – or that the bulk of devs do. Ethereum is still preferred for its robustness, powerful tools, huge liquidity, and superior second layer. But often, the same individuals desiring these perks are those who turn to Solana thanks to its low gas costs, faster iteration cycles, and growing ecosystem.

Solana gives developers advantages such as:

• Unique features like confidential transfers, better attestation, or high compute limits, which favor more complex DeFi, gaming, data-intensive, or high-volume applications
• The possibility to use Solidity or export existing dApps from Ethereum, all while leveraging Solana’s scalability and speed
• A growing ecosystem where tools, standards, and developer support are quick to update
• Faster iteration cycles as it deploys, tests, and transacts more cheaply and rapidly
• Developer tools like TypeScript SDKs and Anchor that lower the entry barrier
• Tech assistance and grants from the Solana Foundation, and other types of support.

Ending words

With quantifiable improvements in throughput, capacity, real-world apps, institutional use, and developer experience, Solana is the second best blockchain for new and existing developers in 2025. It’s known as the other big choice when Ethereum’s gas fees, latency, and cost are turn-offs.

If you’re a developer building up knowledge in blockchain and creating performance-sensitive applications, Solana might be the pick of the year for you to try. It might not surpass Ethereum in every area, but seeing how rapidly and beautifully it scales, it’s safe to say that it’s breathing down Ethereum’s neck.