Solana's 2025: From Trump Meme Coin Surge to New Consensus Protocol and Market Fluctuations
Solana started 2025 with significant momentum fueled by the launch of the TRUMP meme coin on January 17 and a new all-time high for its native token, SOL. On January 19, SOL reached an all-time high of $293.31. However, this peak was followed by a notable decline; by April 6, SOL had dropped about 64% to trade around $105.77.
Despite this setback, Solana's ecosystem saw active development throughout the year. In May, the Alpenglow consensus protocol was introduced, aiming to achieve at least five times faster transaction finality. By September, 98% of validators had voted to adopt Alpenglow, with a testnet expected by December and a mainnet rollout planned for the first quarter of 2026.
Solana treasuries also became prominent as publicly traded digital asset treasuries (DATs). Notably, Janover/DeFi Development Corp and Upexi accumulated over 4 million SOL collectively, roughly 2 million SOL each, valued at approximately $284 million per treasury. In September, Forward Industries acquired nearly 7 million SOL using proceeds from a $1.65 billion private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal, highlighting ongoing DAT activity amid questions about the sustainability of these investments.
The Solana token exchange-traded funds (ETFs) gained traction during the year. Bitwise's BSOL ETF debuted with over $69 million in assets, followed by approvals for TSOL, GSOL, FSOL, and VSOL ETFs. Collectively, these ETFs saw net inflows exceeding $600 million by December 15, including an impressive 21-day consecutive inflow streak, as reported by SoSoValue.
Market impact was reflected in related stocks, which exhibited volatility throughout the year. UPXI, for example, peaked near $22.70 before falling sharply to $2.04 by early December. Other stocks such as FWDI and DFDV also experienced significant declines, with FWDI losing roughly 84% of its value.
By December 15, SOL traded around $127.70, approximately 56% below its all-time high, while the TRUMP meme coin fell about 93% from its peak to $5.33, illustrating the considerable fluctuations in the Solana ecosystem throughout 2025.
