Solana Market Cap Debate Highlights Ethereum's Financial Depth
Solana (SOL)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
analyticsinsight.net reports that Real Vision founder Raoul Pal argues Solana could overtake Ethereum by market capitalization, though network activity alone may not settle the debate. Pal highlights capital concentration, financial activity, adoption, and token economics as key differentiators between the two networks. He notes that Ethereum holds approximately USD 200,000 in total value locked per active user, compared to Solana's figure of near USD 2,500.
These metrics divide DeFi TVL by active-user measures, which do not necessarily reflect individual user deposits or ownership. Pal assigns greater weight to lending balances, collateral, and other financial assets, describing Ethereum as financially deeper while associating much of Solana's activity with speculation. Data from DefiLlama on October 3 shows Ethereum holding substantially more DeFi deposits and stablecoins than Solana, though both networks hold billions in these categories.
Visa's April stablecoin settlement update lists both Ethereum and Solana as supported networks in its pilot, establishing a financial use case beyond speculative trading. The report notes that Pal did not provide the specific dataset or measurement period for his estimates, making independent reproduction of those ratios difficult. Token prices can also influence TVL without fresh deposits, and DefiLlama separates asset inflows from price effects to clarify this distinction.
Ethereum users pay transaction fees in ETH, with the protocol burning the base fee and sending priority fees to validators, directly linking demand to supply changes. Solana burns half of its base fee and sends the other half to validators, who also receive all priority fees. Neither structure creates a fixed relationship between transaction growth and token prices, and holders do not receive a claim on every application's revenue.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for SOL, measured when this story was written up on 3 October 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Solana is currently trading at $118.65 with a 24-hour buy ratio of 51.1%, indicating a balanced flow where buying and selling are nearly equal. However, shorter-term data shows a shift in momentum, with the 1-hour buy ratio dropping to 32.5% and the 4-hour ratio at 42.2%. This suggests that buying pressure is fading in the immediate term compared to the broader 24-hour window. The 1-hour volume delta is negative at -$1,928,101, and the 4-hour delta is -$3,104,828, indicating net selling in recent hours. In contrast, the 24-hour volume delta is positive at +$8,611,160, showing that net buying has occurred over the full day. The cumulative volume delta at the 24-hour close is -$8,025,122, reflecting that despite the positive delta, the total volume of sell orders exceeded buy orders over the period.
The latest daily buy ratio of 48.8% sits at the 27th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 50.0% - weaker buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for SOL, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, Solana experienced a 7-day average buy ratio of 51.3%, which is slightly higher than the current 24-hour reading of 51.1%. This indicates that today's buying activity is roughly in line with the weekly average, differing by only -0.2 points. Volume today is 1.23x the weekly average, suggesting that trading activity is unusually high compared to recent norms. The price has declined by 2.9% over the past 8 days, despite a total volume delta of +$81,374,479 for the period. This context shows that while volume is elevated, the price action has been negative, and the current day's activity is consistent with the broader weekly trend of net buying.