TL;DR
- Solana’s new addresses increased 33% since September 1, according to data shared by Santiment, while SOL gained around 20%.
- Ethereum’s new-address activity remained broadly flat, while Chainlink recorded growth of less than 2% over comparable periods.
- Solana’s expanding DeFi, stablecoin and tokenized-asset activity provides additional support for the network’s growing on-chain usage.
Solana is showing stronger signs of network adoption as the number of new addresses rises significantly faster than its recent price performance. According to data shared by on-chain analytics platform Santiment, new Solana addresses have increased 33% since September 1, while SOL has gained around 20% over the same period.
The divergence suggests that activity on the blockchain is expanding beyond price speculation. New addresses are not a perfect measure of unique users, since individuals can create multiple wallets, but the metric can provide a useful indication of fresh activity entering a network.
$LINK is up 24% since Sep 1. Are new wallets following? Not really, according to our data.
📈 LINK went from $11.22 to $13.96 between the Sep 1 and Oct 6 closes.
🆕 New LINK addresses averaged 1,249 a day over the four weeks to Oct 6, against 1,225 in the four weeks to Sep 1.… pic.twitter.com/WsXt6UYEYL— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) October 7, 2026
Solana Adoption Accelerates Across On-Chain Activity
The latest figures also place Solana ahead of several major networks in terms of new-address growth. Ethereum recorded relatively little change in new addresses despite an approximately 11% increase in ETH since September 1. Chainlink showed an even wider gap between price and wallet growth, with LINK gaining about 24% while new addresses increased by less than 2%.
Solana’s broader network fundamentals provide additional context. Data from a Q1 2026 shareholder report showed approximately 4.6 million daily active users and 10.1 billion transactions during the quarter, while stablecoin TVL reached $14.9 billion. These figures underline the range of activity taking place across trading, payments and decentralized applications.
The network has also continued expanding in tokenized assets. Galaxy reported that Solana’s real-world assets surpassed $3 billion in Q2 2026, with public equities becoming the largest category. This growth points to increasing use of the blockchain for financial assets beyond traditional DeFi applications.
Stablecoins And DeFi Strengthen Solana’s Position
Stablecoin activity has become another important component of Solana’s ecosystem. Current data indicates that the network holds roughly $16.9 billion in stablecoins, with USDC and USDT among its largest assets.
This growing liquidity can support decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, payments and other applications that require fast settlement. Solana’s low transaction costs and high throughput have helped it attract users across several segments rather than relying on a single use case.
Still, the 33% increase in new addresses should be interpreted alongside active addresses, transaction counts and volumes. A rise in wallet creation alone does not prove that the same percentage of new individuals joined the ecosystem. Even so, the combination of address growth, liquidity and expanding applications presents a constructive picture for Solana adoption.
