Solana Posts Strong Q3 2025 Performance With $11.5B in DeFi Growth

Solana finished Q3 2025 with impressive numbers across its ecosystem. The network’s total value locked in decentralized finance reached $11.5 billion, marking a 32.7% jump from the previous quarter, according to the latest Messari report.

SOL’s market cap climbed to $113.5 billion by quarter’s end, placing it sixth among all cryptocurrencies.

The network generated $222.3 million in real economic value during Q3, which includes all transaction fees and validator tips. What’s particularly interesting is that applications on Solana earned $2.63 for every dollar spent on transaction fees.

This metric, called the Application Revenue Capture Ratio, increased from 222.8% to 262.8%, showing that developers are finding better ways to monetize their platforms.

Stablecoins and DeFi Lead the Expansion on Solana

Stablecoin adoption on Solana hit a new peak at $14.1 billion, up 36.5% from Q2. USDC grew to $10 billion, while PYUSD more than doubled to reach $445.3 million.

This surge in stablecoins points to sustained capital flow into the network, especially after high-profile token launches earlier in the year created new trading pairs.

Kamino maintained its position as the top DeFi protocol with $2.8 billion in TVL. Jupiter climbed to second place with $2.6 billion after launching Jupiter Lend in August. Raydium came third with $2.3 billion.

Daily spot DEX volume averaged $4 billion, up 17% from the previous quarter.

Real-World Assets and Infrastructure Updates

The real-world asset sector grew 41.9% to $682.2 million. Ondo Finance’s USDY led with $176.8 million, followed by BlackRock’s BUIDL at $175.2 million. Backed’s xStocks product, which tokenizes U.S. equities and ETFs, reached 70,420 holders with a market cap of $115.7 million.

Infrastructure developments included the announcement of Alpenglow, a new consensus protocol expected to reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to just 100-150 milliseconds. The Firedancer client continued testing on mainnet, with 17% of the network stake running Frankendancer versions by October.

Digital asset treasury companies collectively held 18.9 million SOL worth $3.9 billion, led by Forward Industries’ $1.65 billion raise backed by Galaxy, Jump, and Multicoin Capital.