Despite its touted potential as an "Ethereum killer," Solana's blockchain has been plagued by network outages and congestion issues. The network, which claims to process 50,000 transactions per second, often peaks at around 1,000 TPS under real-world conditions. In April, 75% of all non-vote SOL transactions were failing, largely due to a surge in bot activity and demand for meme coins. Solana has experienced nine network outages since 2021, totaling over 150 hours of downtime. Despite these issues, Solana remains popular among retail investors due to its low transaction fees.