The public chain track in 2025 is quietly undergoing a reshaping of the landscape. Although Solana, Ethereum, and TRON are all at the top of the industry, they are taking completely different paths. If you want to understand the future competition trends of public chains, understanding the core data differences among these three chains is enough.
**Fee Revenue: The Premium of High Throughput**
As of early 2025, Solana's on-chain fee revenue has surpassed $600 million, officially topping the list. TRON follows closely behind with about $580 million. Ethereum ranks third with approximately $524 million. The numbers are close, but the growth stories are entirely different.
Solana's fee revenue has increased by 107% year-over-year—what does this indicate? It shows that high-frequency trading, Meme coin ecosystems, and DeFi liquidity mining are rapidly consuming bandwidth. TRON's growth is even more aggressive at 126.9%, but its base is lower. Ethereum's growth is more moderate, with single-digit percentage increases, which reflects its stability—relying on large DeFi settlements and NFT transactions, which have relatively steady traffic.
Looking at the revenue structure, the "business models" of the three chains are quite different. Solana benefits from retail trading frequency dividends, TRON from stablecoin cross-border transfers, and Ethereum from high-value institutional DeFi and digital asset transactions.
**Active Addresses: Balancing Quantity and Quality**
Solana leads with 1.05 million active addresses, followed by Ethereum with about 850,000, and TRON with around 900,000. Just looking at these numbers, Solana is far ahead. But the story behind it is more interesting.
Solana's "activity level" is famously high—each active address interacts about 50 times per month on average. Ethereum has about 20 interactions, and TRON about 30. Why is this? Because most users on Solana are involved in Meme coin gambling and frequent trading, naturally leading to higher interaction frequency.
However, there's a hidden but crucial indicator: **User quality**. Among Ethereum's active addresses, high-net-worth users account for 40%—meaning many large funds and institutions are active on this chain. Solana is mostly retail users, while TRON focuses on payment users. In other words, Solana is a bustling marketplace, Ethereum is a capital hub, and TRON is a payment channel.
**Transaction Throughput: The Race of Speeds**
In terms of transaction count, Solana has already exceeded 23 billion transactions—that's roughly comparable to a leading country in the global retail payment system. Ethereum has about 18 billion, and TRON around 21 billion.
While the transaction count is high, what about transaction value? Here, the picture reverses. Ethereum, despite fewer transactions, has much higher average transaction value—driven by DeFi contract calls, cross-chain bridges, and large NFT trades. This explains why Ethereum consistently has the largest volume in dollar terms.
**Ecological Positioning: Three Different Rivers**
Looking at ecological positioning, the roles of the three are already quite clear:
- **Solana**: Vertically focused on retail transactions and Meme economy. It does not aim to be the largest DeFi platform but has built itself into a "high-frequency trading paradise."
- **Ethereum**: The foundational financial infrastructure. Whether lending protocols, DEXs, or derivatives trading, they are highly concentrated on Ethereum. The first choice for institutions and large funds.
- **TRON**: A hub for cross-border payments and stablecoin circulation. Although its ecosystem is less rich than the other two, it excels in stablecoin transfer efficiency with low costs.
By 2025, the competition among public chains is no longer "either-or," but "each taking its own path." Solana benefits from incremental market dividends, Ethereum guards its financial core, and TRON deepens in the payments track. Understanding the strengths and bottlenecks of these three chains is much more meaningful than simply looking at rankings.