Solana ETF bump fizzles after $161 price spike
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Bad news first. Solana closed June at $155, which is down 1.2% month over month. That’s not catastrophic, considering a broader altcoin slump, but SOL has underperformed BTC and HYPE for the second straight month.
Real economic value (REV) fell 48% in June, DEX volume dropped 35%, and Token Holder Net Income plunged 56% MoM, according to a recent update from Blockworks Research — though it’s worth noting Solana still leads across all networks by these metrics.
On the upside, Solana processed over 2.1 billion successful transactions in June, setting a new record. App revenue hit $150 million, up from $133 million in May, which was 35% of all application revenue across chains. The highest-earning apps (Pump and Axiom) pulled in over $76 million in June, driven by memecoins and leverage.
It’s now Wednesday, and as promised, the REX-Osprey SOL Staking ETF is live. The price of SOL popped to $161 on the anticipatory lead-up but fell back toward $146 within a day. At the time of publication, SOL prices hover around $152.
Pump flipped Raydium in DEX volume for the first time, closing June with a 32% share vs. Raydium’s 26%. Trading-focused apps now account for nearly 90% of Solana’s total application revenue.
Meanwhile, xStocks — tokenized US equities — went live June 30. There are 11 listings so far (SPYx, TSLAx, MSTRx, etc.), with 40 more in the pipeline. Day-one volume cleared $1.3 million.
Validator income is compressing fast. Jito tips dropped to 51% of total REV, and the validator set shrank by 25% due to Solana Foundation offboarding.
With FCFS and app-specific sequencing on the horizon, revenue for operators may decline further as latency supplants fees as the primary competitive advantage.
In June, Solana apps generated $2.40 in revenue for every $1 in REV, another all-time high. With the pump.fun ICO confirmed (timeline still TBD), don’t be surprised if that trend accelerates.
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