Pump.fun Drives Solana Revenue Despite Memecoin Cool-Down

Pump.fun remained Solana’s largest revenue generator in the first quarter of 2026, pulling in $124.7 million, more than a third of the network’s $342.2 million in total app revenue, despite cooling memecoin activity.

The memecoin launchpad's revenue rose 17% quarter over quarter, a sign that its core business remains resilient, Messari said in its Solana Q1 report.

Launchpads generated $144 million in Q1, roughly 42% of Solana’s total app revenue. A standout within the sector was Bags, whose quarterly revenue surged 1,347% to $11.5 million, fueled by a wave of AI-themed memecoins in January. The surge proved short-lived, with monthly revenue dropping 85% by February.

Solana revenue. Source: Messari

Solana’s memecoin revenue is holding up even as the network increasingly attracts a broader range of users, with major institutions like BlackRock, Visa and JPMorgan expanding their presence across its payments and tokenization ecosystem.

“Memecoins don’t define Solana,” Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, said in a recent interview.

Related: MoonPay Acquires DFlow, Adding Solana Trading Infrastructure

Trading apps, RWAs grow on Solana

Trading apps on Solana were the quarter’s strongest-growing sector overall, with revenue rising 40% to $79 million. Axiom led the pack at $42.4 million, making it the second-highest revenue-generating app on the network.

Elsewhere, Solana’s real-world asset market cap crossed $2 billion, up 43% in the quarter, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL doubling to $525 million after Anchorage Digital added custody support.

DeFi total value locked fell 22% to $6.16 billion, though Messari researchers attributed the decline largely to SOL’s 33% price drop rather than user exits. The network’s share of total DeFi TVL remained roughly flat at 6.7%.

RWAs grow on Solana, fueled by institutional inflows. Source: Messari

On the infrastructure side, the focus is on Alpenglow, a sweeping consensus upgrade targeting the Agave 4.1 release. If it ships as planned, the upgrade would cut Solana’s transaction finality from around 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds.

Related: Solana Clients Introduce Post-Quantum Solution Falcon

Goldman Sachs exits Solana positions

As Cointelegraph reported, Goldman Sachs exited its Solana ETF positions in Q1 2026, dropping stakes in funds from Grayscale, Bitwise and Fidelity.

Italy’s largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, also nearly wiped out its Solana position in Q1 2026, slashing its stake in Bitwise’s Solana ETF from 266,320 shares to just 2,817, even as it more than doubled its total crypto holdings to $235 million by piling into Bitcoin ETFs from ARK 21Shares and BlackRock.