Ethereum vs Solana: An analysis of the actual costs and ultimate meaning of transactions

What the 40x number really means

The 40x number does exist, but it measures the total fee charged by each network over a 24-hour period, rather than the price of a single transaction. According to Eco's comparison page published on July 16, 2026, Solana is much cheaper in terms of the cost of a single transaction: a typical token exchange costs only a fraction of a penny, while the Ethereum base layer requires several dollars. Ethereum's higher total one-day fees reflect the smaller number of expensive transactions, rather than lower usage.

Digital source of "US$2.7 million vs US$70,000"

The three media outlets in this group (Phemex News, CryptoNews.net and U.Today) all reported almost the same data: Ethereum incurred approximately US$2.7 million in network fees in 24 hours, while Solana incurred approximately US$70,000. All three reported a difference of about 40 times. All three media outlets linked this figure to April 24, 2026. But they differ on the origin of the numbers. The CryptoNews.net article embedded a specific post on the X account called "Ethereum Daily", which read: "Ethereum generated $2.7 million, while Solana only raised $70,000." U.Today attributed the same two numbers to another source-"an official Ethereum X page"-but did not specify the account name or link to the post, so it was impossible to confirm whether it was the same as the post cited by CryptoNews.net. Phemex did not mention any sources other than "data shared on April 24, 2026." What this group can confirm is narrower than a single source: none of the three media outlets point to independent on-line data panels like Etherscan or Solscan, and at least two of them trace numbers to some form of X posts rather than expense trackers. Whether these three media outlets ultimately based on the same post is unknown to the available evidence.

One day's activity on any chain can cause these total fees to fluctuate. A network experiencing an NFT casting boom, a memo craze or unusual congestion will show a peak in fees, but that does not account for a typical day. None of the three media outlets stated whether April 24, 2026 was a special day for any chain.

Total Fees and Individual Transaction Costs

These are two different measures, and confusing them is the most common misinterpretation of this comparison. The total fee is the sum of all fees paid by a network over a period of time-it rises with the number of transactions and the price of each transaction. The cost of a single transaction is the fee paid by a single user to perform a redemption or transfer.

Eco's comparison page gives the specific ranges of the two chains. According to Eco, under normal conditions, the Gas fee for a typical Uniswap-style redemption on the Ethereum Basic Layer (L1) is US$2 to US$10; while according to the same page, Ethereum's second-layer expansion solutions (Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync) will be reduced to US$0.10 to US$0.50 after the EIP-4844 data block upgrade in March 2024. On Solana, the basic fee for a similar exchange is about $0.0005 to $0.005, and is almost always less than 1 cent.

Combining the April 24, 2026 snapshot with these individual transaction cost ranges suggests an explanation: relatively few expensive Ethereum transactions, compared to a large number of near-free Solana transactions. This is an inference, not a confirmed calculation. No source in this group gives the number of transactions on any chain on April 24, 2026, so this page cannot explain how many transactions incurred these total fees, nor cannot it rule out that Ethereum also occurred that day. The possibility of more transactions.

In its August 13, 2026 report, Crypto-Reporter provided another independent transaction volume data for a different period that pointed in a similar direction but was not confirmed: It quoted Galaxy Research data as saying that in the first quarter of 2026, Solana transactions were 25.3 billion, compared with approximately 200 million for Ethereum; Solana had 4.6 million daily active users during the quarter. The first quarter of 2026 ends before the April 24 snapshot cited by Phemex, CryptoNews.net and U.Today, which belongs to the second quarter of 2026. These two data points are similar in direction, but come from different time periods. This page does not have transaction volume data for the second quarter of 2026 to directly compare the expense snapshot on April 24.

Crypto-Reporter also reported that according to Galaxy Research, Solana's share of total network expenses fell from 26.6% in the first quarter of 2026 to 17.3% in the second quarter, down from 18.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Crypto-Reporter describes this as the verifier's share of revenue shrinking even as trading volumes rise, and points out that it is unclear whether this reflects structural problems or a temporary decline in speculative activity.

The meaning of "finality" and why the two chains have different meanings

Finality refers to the point in time at which a transaction is deemed irreversible. Ethereum and Solana achieve finality through different consensus mechanisms and different timelines, and the numbers commonly used between the two are not directly comparable.

According to Eco, Ethereum's finality is achieved through Casper FFG, part of its Gasper Consensus design. A block gets soft acknowledgements in a 12-second time slot, but hard finality-the point in time when reversing the chain requires an economically huge attack-takes approximately 12 minutes, or two eras. Solana's design sacrifices part of the settlement guarantee in exchange for speed. Eco's page states that Solana received soft confirmation in approximately 13 seconds through optimistic voting, while hard finality was 6.4 seconds, spanning 32 slots, which Eco attributed to changes under the "post-Firedancer" client deployment (citing the SIMD-0033 change).

Two sources in this group disagree on whether Firedancer is online

The two documents here are contradictory, and readers will not be able to see this if they rely on only one of them. Eco's page description released on July 16, 2026 stated that Solana's 6.4-second finalization has taken effect, which is related to the fact that the Firedance client has been launched on the main network. Crypto-Reporter's report released on August 13, 2026 is the opposite: It pointed out that Fireancer is Jump Crypto's independent verifier client. In January 2026 testing, its network layer processed more than 1 million transactions per second under isolation benchmark conditions. However, as of mid-August 2026, whether Fireancer is already running on the Solana main network cannot be confirmed by existing sources. Crypto-Reporter added that it was too early to consider it an online upgrade.

Crypto-Reporter also reported on the second consensus mechanism reform, Alpenglow, which described its goal as finality of approximately 150 milliseconds, compared with the current mechanism's finalization time of 12 to 13 seconds. According to Crypto-Reporter, as of the report date, Alpenglow was only running on a community test cluster, and the main online launch time was not confirmed. So, based on the final numbers readers see-6.4 seconds, about 12 to 13 seconds, or 150 milliseconds in the future-they describe three different deployment states, and of the three sources in this group, only one is willing to make it clear that the fastest number is not yet online.

What is not told on this page

The comparison of $2.7 million to $70,000 is just a 24-hour snapshot. CryptoNews.net attributed it to a specific post on an X account called "Ethereum Daily";U.Today attributed the same number to an unnamed "official Ethereum X page";Phemex did not mention any sources. Whether these three media outlets are ultimately based on the same source cannot be confirmed here, and none of them are independent on-chain data extracts. This page cannot tell readers what a typical day is like on any chain. A day with abnormal congestion on any chain can produce a completely different proportion.

None of the five sources used here are dates extracted directly by TheCoinrise from major on-chain data panels such as Etherscan or Solscan. Each number is second-hand information and has been filtered by company blogs or newsrooms citing these panels or Galaxy Research, and this page does not independently verify any of them.

As of the date readers visit this page, it is impossible to confirm here whether Solana's Firedance client or its Alpenglow consensus upgrade is already running on the main network. There is a disagreement between Eco's July 16, 2026 page and Crypto-Reporter's August 13, 2026 report that directly changes which final number-6.4 seconds, 12 to 13 seconds or 150 milliseconds in the future-actually applies at any given time.

Crypto-Reporter clearly pointed out that in the available data, there is no fair and equal fee comparison between Ethereum and Solana in 2026. This page relies on the fee ranges provided by Eco as the closest single transaction comparison, with a single release date (July 16, 2026) rather than real-time data.

This page does not independently verify data such as the total lockup value, stable currency circulation or number of verifiers on any of the chains cited by Eco. These figures are given here with names and dates, but have not been audited in this publication.

Source

Each of the above facts is attributed to one of these reports. When they have differences, this article has made it clear.