As reported by Cointelegraph, Solana network activity surged past Ethereum's levels over the weekend due to a rush for Solana-based memecoins, leading to challenges in network performance.
On March 16, the total trading volume on Solana reached $3.52 billion, surpassing Ethereum's daily volume by more than $1.1 billion, according to DefiLlama data.
However, the Solana network faced difficulties in handling the increased activity, with numerous users expressing concerns about failed or missing transactions.
Based on Solana Validator data shared by a pseudonymous user named "Dagnum," the network's ping time ranged between 20 and 40 seconds at 8 pm UTC on March 16, causing around 50% of transactions to fail for approximately 20 minutes.
The notable spike in Solana network activity was primarily driven by a surge in demand for new memecoins. On March 14, investors began flocking to a newly launched memecoin called Book of Meme (BOME), which skyrocketed from nearly zero to a market capitalization of $1.45 billion in just 56 hours.
Another memecoin known as "$NAP" (NAP) also attracted significant attention, experiencing a rapid increase in market capitalization from around $20 million to over $330 million in less than 18 hours.
