Solana logs over 14 billion transactions in Q3 2026, its busiest quarter yet

Solana just had its busiest three months on record. The network processed more than 14 billion transactions in the third quarter of 2026, the highest quarterly total it has ever posted. Research data puts the figure at approximately 14.2 billion, a 45% jump from the previous quarter. The numbers behind the record Daily active addresses averaged about 4.1 million in Q3, a 12% increase over Q2. Average daily transactions came in at 120 million, up 8% quarter-over-quarter. On its busiest days, the network handled more than 169 million transactions. Wallets holding SOL climbed to 8.38 million, a 20.5% increase from the prior quarter. The number of stablecoin holders on Solana rose to 13.07 million, up 16% over the same period. On-chain card payment volume reached $262.7 million in Q3, already surpassing the entire total for Q2. Upgrades did some of the heavy lifting In late July, Solana rolled out SIMD-0286, a compute limit increase. In mid-September, the network transitioned to a new transaction format. Through both changes, block times held steady near 400 milliseconds. The research also tracked successful non-vote transactions, which strip out the consensus messages validators send ...