Detecting DeFi Risk, Before It Breaks
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Chain Rating · Scorecard v1.0

Solana

Blockchain · SOL · $5B DeFi TVL. Solana is the largest high-throughput smart-contract chain, holding about 6.5% of all-chain TVL.

Data As Of November 12, 2026 Methodology Chains v1.0 (provisional) Revenue To Coin Partial burn + staker payout · Low
SolvencyCREDIT GRADE
BB
53 / 100
Can the network keep paying for its own security?
Legitimacy
BBB
64 / 100
Is it what it says it is, and who controls it?
GrowthOUTLOOK
B
40.8 / 100
Is usage growing, measured by value and fees?
How Revenue Reaches The Coin

Does Solana's Revenue Help SOL Holders?

Mechanism
Partial burn + staker payout
Pass-through today
Low
  • Burn: half of each base fee is destroyed. Base fees are a small part of total fees.
  • Staker payout: priority fees go entirely to validators, and stakers also receive tips paid to block builders.
  • Inflation supplies close to 90% of staking yield, with fees and tips the small remainder (Galaxy, Q2 2026).

What it means for a holder. Revenue reaches stakers, not holders at large. With about two-thirds of supply staked, a holder who does not stake is diluted by roughly 3.9% a year.

Descriptive, not scored separately: the fee-against-issuance input in Solvency already carries the economic weight. Not investment advice.

Axis I · Credit Grade

Solvency — BB

Solvency screens at BB (53 / 100). Strongest input: supply pressure, next 12 months. Weakest input: fee revenue against new issuance.

Solvency ScorecardBB
MetricRawNormalizedWeightWeighted
Fee revenue against new issuance0.12x
25%2.5
Chain fees of about $232M over the last 12 months against issuance of roughly 3.9% of supply a year (about $1.9B). Excludes validator tips paid outside the protocol.
Stake concentration6 / 10
25%15
Nakamoto coefficient of 19; the validator count fell to about 790 at the end of 2025. Six hosting providers cover a third of stake.
Supply pressure, next 12 months3.9%
15%12.8
Inflation of about 3.9% a year, declining 15% annually toward 1.5%. A proposal to double the decline rate was under review in 2026.
DeFi value stability (worst 90-day drawdown)24%
15%12.8
Liveness and incident history5 / 10
20%10
Several full outages between 2021 and February 2024; none found since, though not searched exhaustively.
FINAL DIMENSION SCORE53 → BB
Axis II · Legitimacy

Legitimacy — BBB

Legitimacy screens at BBB (64 / 100). Strongest input: team and foundation transparency. Weakest input: client diversity and audits.

Legitimacy ScorecardBBB
MetricRawNormalizedWeightWeighted
Client diversity and audits5 / 10
20%10
The Agave codebase still underlies most stake. The hybrid Frankendancer client holds about a fifth; the fully independent Firedancer client had no mainnet date as of April 2026.
Team and foundation transparency8 / 10
20%16
Delivery against roadmap7 / 10
20%14
Alpenglow consensus upgrade targeted for mid-2026; status not verified.
Governance of upgrades6 / 10
25%15
Validator stake votes on proposals; the foundation and core teams retain strong influence.
Supply distribution6 / 10
15%9
Large early insider and investor allocations, now mostly unlocked.
FINAL DIMENSION SCORE64 → BBB
Axis III · Growth Outlook

Growth — B

Growth screens at B (40.8 / 100). Strongest input: users and developers. Weakest input: fee revenue, 12-month trend.

Growth ScorecardB
MetricRawNormalizedWeightWeighted
DeFi TVL, 12-month trend-49%
25%6.3
Share of all-chain TVL6.5%
20%8
Fee revenue, 12-month trend-74%
20%2
Users and developers7 / 10
35%24.5
High transaction activity and spot ETF inflows, against a sharp fall in fee revenue as memecoin trading cooled.
FINAL DIMENSION SCORE40.8 → B
Verdict

Where Solana Lands

Weakest axis: Growth, B. Usage is real, but two structural items hold the grades down: validators are paid mostly in new SOL, and a single codebase still dominates. Full Firedancer adoption and lower issuance would address both.

Credit Grade — Solvency
BB
53 / 100

The credit grade answers one question: can the network keep funding its security and stay live. Legitimacy and Growth are published beside it and are never averaged into it.

Analyst Note
High-throughput chain with strong usage but a security budget funded about 90% by inflation, and a history of outages.
Chains scorecard v1.0, provisional. Base networks are graded on the same three axes and AAA-to-D scale as DeFi protocols, with inputs suited to a chain. Fee, TVL and share figures come from DefiLlama as of November 12, 2026; the 0–10 inputs are analyst estimates from public sources and judgment. Growth leans on DeFi TVL and fee revenue, which understates chains used mainly for payments. Every input should be verified before being relied upon.
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