Solana (SOL) added an additional $1 billion in total value of stablecoins in December, mostly in US Dollar Coin (USDC), according to data from DefiLlama.
The entries highlight the acceleration of stablecoin adoption and the Solana network's rise to prominence in 2024, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi).
Solana now hosts approximately $5 billion in total value locked (TVL) of stablecoins, with nearly $4 billion of that comprised of USDC, according to the data.
Tether (USDT) is the second most popular stablecoin on Solana, with around $1 billion in TVL.
As of Dec. 31, the total market capitalizations of USDT and USDC on blockchain networks are around $137 billion and $44 billion, respectively, according to CoinGecko.
Stablecoin market capitalizations have surged following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory in November. Many believe Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential race will benefit the industry, Cointelegraph Research said.
Since November, the combined market capitalizations of the three major stablecoins — USDT, USDC and Dai — have collectively grown by more than $25 billion, according to a Dec. 26 report from Citi Research.
This is bullish for DeFi in particular, as “stablecoins are the gateway to decentralized finance,” Citi said.
Ethereum Challenger
Solana has emerged as a serious competitor to Ethereum in DeFi and other applications that require smart contracts.
Since 2023, SOL has outperformed Ether (ETH) by approximately eight times, according to data from TradingView.
By 2024, Solana's TVL has increased by about five times, from approximately $1.4 billion to over $8.6 billion, according to DefiLlama.
“[R]efer traders are increasingly entering the crypto market through Solana [as] speculation increases around Solana-based memecoins and AI agent tokens,” Grayscale Research said in a 30-day note of December.
In December, Grayscale added Jupiter and Jito — two Solana-native DeFi applications — to its list of top 20 tokens to watch in Q1 2025.
Jito, a Solana staking pool, reported monthly revenue of over $100 million in November and December, according to crypto researcher Kairos Research.
However, Ethereum's stablecoin TVL still vastly outpaces Solana's, surpassing $110 billion as of Dec. 31, according to DefiLlama.
