Bitcoin vs. Solana: The Complete Guide (2025)

Bitcoin and Solana are Among The World’s Two Most Popular Layer-1 Blockchains

Bitcoin and Solana are two of the world’s most popular blockchains. While Bitcoin is the first and largest cryptocurrency by market cap, as of mid-2025, Solana is the sixth-largest by market cap, only smaller than BTC, ETH, USDT, and BNB.

However, while Bitcoin remains the undisputed leader as a digital store of value, Solana is becoming one of the most popular blockchains for smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, with some even believing it may one day unseat Ethereum as the most popular non-Bitcoin L1. 

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the key aspects of both the Bitcoin and Solana blockchains, including their founders and history, token and tokenomics, scalability and performance, architecture and consensus, programming languages, DeFi TVL, GameFi and SocialFi use cases, and NFT implementations. 

Founders and History 

Bitcoin

Bitcoin was created by the anonymous person or persons known as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Specifically, Bitcoin was introduced through a whitepaper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System.” The first Bitcoin block, known as the Genesis Block (Block 0), was mined on January 3, 2009.

Bitcoin’s primary goal was to provide a decentralized and censorship-resistant financial system, allowing users to transact without intermediaries like banks. Unlike Ethereum, Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21 million BTC, making it a scarce digital asset often referred to as “digital gold.”

Unlike Ethereum, Bitcoin has never undergone a fundamental shift in its consensus mechanism and continues to operate under Proof-of-Work (PoW), securing the network through its global network of miners. The Proof-of-Work (PoW) relies on computers, referred to as “miners,” which solve increasingly complex mathematical equations in order to earn the right to “mine” the next block by validating (approving) a transaction on the Bitcoin network.

While Bitcoin could be “mined’ on laptops and PCs in the early years, by 2013, most mining had switched to professional-grade ASICs.  An ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) is a specialized computer chip engineered to perform one particular task with extraordinary efficiency—in Bitcoin mining, it’s specifically designed to process the SHA-256 algorithm as swiftly as possible. 

Solana

Solana was created by Solana Labs, founded by developers Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal in 2018. The company’s founding was partially inspired by a 2017 whitepaper published by Yakovenko, which outlined a new type of consensus mechanism for transaction ordering called “proof-of-history” (PoH). 

Yakovenko and several other Solana co-founders were longtime veterans of the software giant Qualcomm, which was located in Solana Beach, California, which inspired the name. From April 2018 to July 2019, Solana Labs raised approximately $20 million through multiple private token sales. Solana released its finalized whitepaper and testnet in 2018. Solana launched its mainnet and released its native token (SOL) in March 2020. 

Token and Tokenomics

Bitcoin (BTC)

The native cryptocurrency of the Bitcoin network is Bitcoin (BTC). As the first cryptocurrency, all other cryptocurrencies have, in some way, been inspired by Bitcoin. Bitcoin is used for transaction fees, as a payment method, and a store of value. Since Bitcoin is a proof-work blockchain governed by nodes, unlike ETH, Bitcoin is not used for governance or staking on the core Bitcoin blockchain. While there are unrelated DeFi staking products that allow users to stake Bitcoin for rewards, they have no influence over the governance or supply of Bitcoin itself. 

Bitcoin is capped at a maximum supply of 21 million BTC, and, as of the writing of this article, had a circulating supply of 19.83 million BTC. Approximately 4 years, Bitcoin undergoes a “halving,” meaning that the block rewards provided to miners who validate a transaction are cut by 50%. This means that Bitcoin’s inflation rate is cut by 50% about every four years. At the current rate, it’s estimated that the last Bitcoin will be mined in the year 2140. 

Solana (SOL)

Solana’s native token is SOL. Much like the ETH token, the token is utilized for transaction fees, staking, and governance. 

As of the writing of this article, Solana had a total supply of 603.28 million and a circulating supply of 527.87 million. Like ETH, SOL has an unlimited token supply. Information from the Solana Foundation suggests that SOL’s current inflation rate is about 8% per year, with most new SOL being issued to stakers. As more SOL is issued, the Foundation plans for inflation to drop by 15% annually until SOL reaches a long-term inflation rate of approximately 1.5%. 

Scalability and Performance

Bitcoin

Bitcoin TPS, March 2025. Source: Blockchain.com. 

While Bitcoin may be the first and most popular cryptocurrency, it still faces significant challenges regarding speed and scalability. Bitcoin processes roughly 4–5 transactions per second (TPS) on average, and each block takes around 10 minutes to confirm—though actual times can fluctuate between 7 to 14 minutes. Many users also wait for multiple confirmations for added security, extending real-world finality to about an hour. These factors can limit Bitcoin’s capacity to handle large-scale adoption and high transaction volumes.

To overcome these limitations and improve efficiency, Bitcoin Layer-2 solutions such as the Lightning Network have gained increasing traction. Other popular Bitcoin L2s include Stacks, Merlin Chain, and Rootstock. 

By operating off-chain while still anchoring to Bitcoin’s main blockchain, these Layer-2 protocols significantly enhance transaction throughput and reduce congestion. As a result, Bitcoin retains its robust security and global recognition while evolving into a faster, more scalable ecosystem for everyday transactions.

Solana

According to the official Solana Explorer, as of early 2025, Solana averaged a maximum real-world TPS of around 4,700. This makes Solana one of the fastest blockchains in the world by real-world TPS. 

A 2023 report from Visa claims that Solana can achieve finality in as little as 400 milliseconds, though the real-world finality of Solana is often closer to 500-600 milliseconds. 

Network Metrics

Over a three-month sample period from early December 2024 to early March 2025, Bitcoin and Solana both saw significant network activity, but Solana is the clear winner regarding daily active addresses, daily transaction fees, and daily transaction count. 

Bitcoin

• Daily Active Addresses: Ranges from 614,651 to 1,069,565  
• Daily Transaction Fees: Fluctuates between $337,580 and $2,330,110
• Daily Transaction Count: Ranges between 574,814 and 264,912 

Solana

• Daily Active Addresses: Ranges from 2,705,031 to 5,641,706 
• Daily Transaction Fees: Fluctuates $1,981,484 and $10,689,443
• Daily Transaction Count: Ranges between 85,104,066 and 109,002,695 

Architecture and Consensus  

BTC node concentration map, March 2025. Source: Bitnodes. 

Bitcoin

As we discussed earlier in this article, Bitcoin relies on a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, securing the network through its global network of miners. The Proof-of-Work (PoW) relies on computers, referred to as “miners,” which solve increasingly complex mathematical equations in order to earn the right to “mine” the next block by validating (approving) a transaction on the Bitcoin network. 

Data from the website Bitnodes suggests that there are currently 21,397 Bitcoin nodes operating worldwide, with the majority of identifiable nodes operating in the U.S., Germany, France, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, the U.K., Switzerland, and Russia. 

Bitcoin hashrate distribution over the previous 12 months, Mar. 3, 2025: Source: Blockchain.com. 

As seen in the graphic above, the majority of Bitcoin’s hashrate over the last 12 months (ending on Mar. 3, 2025) is controlled by a few core mining pools, including AntPool (22%), FoundryUSA (15%), and ViaBTC (13%). 

Solana

Solana nodes by region, March 2025. Source: Solana Compass.  

Solana is a high-performance blockchain that uses proof-of-stake consensus through a practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant (PBFT) method called Tower BFT.  

Like most proof-of-stake chains, Solana’s validators are incentivized through the network’s native $SOL token, earning rewards from transaction fees, staking, and block rewards.  

However, unlike most other chains, Solana’s Tower BFT consensus method incorporates a new technology called proof-of-history (PoH). Proof-of-history allows the various nodes on the Solana blockchain to agree on the timestamping of the blockchain in a centralized fashion, without the individual nodes having to interact with each other to verify timestamps themselves.  

By using PoH, Solana can significantly increase the efficiency of its core Tower BFT proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.  

According to the official Solana documentation “PoH is used as the network clock, arranging the order of blocks, transactions, and data.”  

For those who may not know, a blockchain timestamp is a record that describes when a specific transaction or event occurred, and is essential to the blockchain record-keeping and transaction process. Timestamps are essential to avoid “double spending” (i.e., spending the same crypto twice) and ensuring that records are kept accurate.  

For an in-depth discussion of Solana’s consensus methods, you can check out this article from Helius.   

According to Solana analytics aggregator Solana Compass, as of early March 2025, Solana had 5956 nodes distributed across 29 countries worldwide. 

Programming Language 

Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s core protocol is primarily written in C++, chosen for its performance, security, and memory control. However, developers also use Python, Go, and Rust for Bitcoin-related applications, wallets, and scaling solutions like the Lightning Network.

Solana

In comparison to Ethereum, Solana is written directly in Rust. It does support some coding in Python, C, and C++, though using these languages isn’t recommended, especially for beginning developers.  

DeFi TVL 

Bitcoin

Bitcoin TVL, March 2025: Source: Defillama. 

As of early March 2025, Bitcoin supported a variety of DeFi dApps and had nearly $6 billion of DeFi TVL (total value locked). The top protocols by TVL included Babylon, Lombard, and SolvBTC LSTs. 

• Babylon enhances blockchain security by enabling Bitcoin holders to stake their BTC directly, thereby securing Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chains without relying on third-party custodians or complex bridging mechanisms. By integrating Bitcoin’s robust Proof-of-Work (PoW) security model, Babylon aims to bolster the integrity of PoS networks, addressing vulnerabilities such as long-range attacks and improving overall decentralization. As of early 2025, Babylon had over $4.8 billion in TVL, comprising around 80% of Bitcoin’s total DeFi TVL. 
• ​Lombard is a restaking protocol that transforms Bitcoin into a productive asset by introducing Liquid Bitcoin (LBTC), a token backed 1:1 by staked BTC. This innovation allows Bitcoin holders to earn staking rewards while maintaining liquidity for use across decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. By leveraging the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol, Lombard enhances the supply side of Babylon’s two-sided security market, promoting broader adoption among Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks. ​
• SolvBTC Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) protocol by Solv Protocol enables Bitcoin holders to stake their BTC and receive SolvBTC tokens, maintaining liquidity while earning staking rewards. These tokens can be utilized across various decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, enhancing Bitcoin’s utility within the DeFi ecosystem. 

Solana

Solana TVL, late February 2025: Source: Defillama. 

As of late February 2025, Solana supported a wide array of DeFi dApps and had more than $16.8 billion of DeFi TVL (total value locked), with some of the top protocols by TVL including Jito, Jupiter, and Raydium. 

• Jito is a decentralized liquid staking protocol on the Solana blockchain created by the Jito Foundation. Jito is governed by the protocol’s native token, JTO. As of early 2025, $3.45 billion in $SOL was staked via Jito. 
• Jupiter is an extremely popular decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator on Solana. Jupiter is governed by the protocol’s native token, JTO. As of early 2025, Jupiter had $2.7 billion in TVL. 
• Raydium is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker (AMM) on the Solana intended to provide fast and low-cost trading for users. Raydium is governed by the protocol’s native token, RAY. As of early 2025, Raydium had $2.6 billion in TVL.

GameFi

Rollercoin, a popular game that offers Bitcoin rewards.

Bitcoin

​Bitcoin’s integration into gaming has been evolving slowly, particularly through Layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network, which enables faster and more cost-effective transactions. However, the Bitcoin GameFi ecosystem is still significantly smaller than that on Ethereum, most Ethereum Layer-2s, or other popular L1s like Solana, often due to speed and file storage constraints. However, some of the most popular blockchain games that brand themselves as Bitcoin games* include LandRocker Bitcoin Hunt, Rollercoin, and Turbo 84. 

• LandRocker Bitcoin Hunt is a first-person shooter (FPS) game where players can earn Bitcoin by participating in in-game activities. Developed by Satoshis Games Inc., the game integrates Bitcoin rewards directly into the gameplay, allowing players to collect satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin) by finding them within the game environment.
• ​RollerCoin is a free-to-play online crypto mining simulator that gamifies the cryptocurrency mining experience, allowing players to build virtual mining farms and earn real cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin. Since its launch in 2018, RollerCoin has attracted over 4 million players. 
• Turbo 84 is a high-speed, lane-changing game developed by THNDR Games, where players navigate a car through a highway, dodging obstacles to collect purple THNDR tickets and blue tokens. The tickets enter players into daily draws to win Bitcoin rewards, while the tokens serve as in-game currency for purchasing power-ups and new vehicles. 

*These games are branded as “Bitcoin games,” but unlike actual GameFi games, it does not appear that they are decentralized or built on top of the actual Bitcoin blockchain or a Bitcoin L2. 

Solana

Solana also hosts many popular GameFi dApps, such as StepN, Star Atlas, and Genopets. 

• StepN: StepN is a blockchain-based fitness app that allows users to track their activity and earn crypto while doing it. Users equipped with StepN NFTs can earn the game’s native STEPN token by walking, jogging, and running outdoors. 
• Star Atlas is a futuristic metaverse RPG game set in the year 2620 that allows players to explore the cosmos with virtual experiences while interacting with both human space travelers and exotic alien races. 
• Genopets is a free-to-play, fitness-focused mobile game that allows users to summon Genopet NFTs. Like StepN, players are rewarded when they walk and move, getting special food and toys for their pets if they log more than 1,000 steps daily. Players can nurture their Genopets with these food and toys while engaging in battles and other challenges. 

SocialFi

Bitcoin

As of early March 2025, it does not appear that there are any social dApps built directly on the Bitcoin blockchain or on any Bitcoin Layer-2s. 

Solana

Some of the most popular social dApps on Solana include Clout, which lets users buy tokenized versions of social media profiles, Twetch, a social media app with a native NFT marketplace, and iMe, an intelligent, AI-powered focused, Telegram-based messaging platform that allows users to send and receive messages with Solana-enabled wallets. 

NFTs 

Bitcoin

Total sales volume and sales for Bitcoin NFTs as of March 2025. Source: CoinMarketCap. 

Since the NFT craze kicked off, Bitcoin came extremely late to the NFT party, with Bitcoin Ordinals (Bitcoin’s version of NFTs) first being launched by developer Casey Rodarmor on January 20, 2023. 

Bitcoin Ordinals have become quite popular, but they’re still nowhere near the popularity of NFTs on Solana. The most expensive Bitcoin NFT, Honey Badgers Ordinals Inscription #8 was sold for approximately $450,000 in December 2023. 

According to data from CoinMarketCap, as of early March 2025, the total sales volume of all Bitcoin Ordinals is nearly $1.6 billion, compared to more than $129 billion for all Ethereum NFTs. 

Solana

Total sales volume and sales for Solana NFTs as of March, 2025. Source: CoinMarketCap. 

Since Solana launched NFTs several years before Bitcoin and is more naturally suited to smart contracts, it has significantly more NFT activity than Bitcoin. Since Solana NFTs launched in 2021, they were able to catch a fraction of the hype of Ethereum NFTs during the NFT bull run, with SMB #1355 selling for $2.1 million in October 2021. 

Today, Solana still lags behind Ethereum in most major NFT metrics. However, it has occasionally beaten Ethereum on certain days in overall NFT sales volume and currently beats Ethereum in specific other metrics, like the number of active traders. 

Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: Where to Buy Tokens 

If you want to participate in the future of either the Bitcoin or Ethereum blockchains, you can easily buy BTC or ETH from almost any centralized exchange. However, when it comes to DEXs, fewer support Bitcoin. 

Top Bitcoin DEXs include Dexalot, Balanced, ViteX, DeFi Chain DEX, THORChain, and GMX (Avalanche). 

In contrast, top Ethereum DEXs include Curve, PancakeSwap, Osmosis, Pangolin, Dexalot, DeGate, and THENA FUSION. 

FAQs

1.Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: Which is Better? 

Bitcoin and Ethereum are powerful and popular blockchain ecosystems, but each has benefits and drawbacks. 

As the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin leads when it comes to security, popularity, liquidity, and consideration as a long-term investment and a store of value..

In contrast, Ethereum leads from a utility standpoint, as it functions as a “decentralized internet” and hosts thousands of popular decentralized applications (dApps), including decentralized exchanges (DEXs), borrowing and lending protocols, blockchain games, decentralized social networks, and other types of innovative decentralized applications. 

2. What are the main differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum?

The main differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum lie in their speed, consensus mechanisms,  programming languages, and smart contract capabilities. For example: 

• Bitcoin has an average of 4-7 TPS, while Solana has an average closer to 4,700 TPS. 
• Bitcoin uses the C++ programming language, while Solana uses Rust. 
• Bitcoin uses a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism,  while Solana combines its proof-of-stake (Pos) mechanism with other ancillary technologies, such as proof-of-history (PoH). 
• Bitcoin does not natively support smart contracts, while Solana was specifically designed to support smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). 

3. What challenges do Bitcoin and Ethereum face?

Bitcoin may face challenges due to concerns over the energy consumption of miners, new forms of decryption (like quantum computers) posing security challenges, and concerns that Bitcoin, while perhaps a great store of value, offers comparatively little utility to users when compared with chains like Ethereum or Solana. 

In comparison, Solana may face ongoing security issues due to introducing malicious code and potential backdoors into the Solana network ecosystem, as evidenced by a recent December 2024 attack on one of Solana’s developer libraries. 

4. What are the pros and cons of the Ethereum and Solana blockchains? 

Bitcoin and Ethereum each have various pros and cons, which we’ll detail below. 

Bitcoin Pros: 

• Higher market cap 
• More secure consensus mechanism (at least in theory) 
• Limited supply of 21 million coins makes it inherently deflationary (at least in theory) 
• Extremely low inflation rate 
• More institutional investment than any other crypto (i.e., 24 U.S.-listed BTC-related ETFs as of March 2025)  

Bitcoin Cons: 

• Not well-equipped for smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps)
• Extremely slow transaction times 
• Bitcoin mining is energy-intensive and likely environmentally destructive 
• Difficulty upgrading network infrastructure 
• Possible future security threats from quantum decryption 

Ethereum Pros:

• Faster-growing user base 
• Highest (or second-highest) real-world TPS of any real-world blockchain 
• Often considered easier to build on 
• Possibility of faster token value growth for investors due to smaller market cap 

Ethereum Cons:

• Significantly more volatile token price  
• Security concerns due to recent breaches 
• Higher level of token inflation 
• Significantly less institutional investment (only one listed ETF, Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL)

5. Which cryptocurrency is better for investors, BTC or SOL? 

While we can’t give specific investment advice, and all crypto investing is risky, many crypto analysts would suggest that BTC is a significantly more secure but lower-growth asset due to its long history, limited supply, and relatively large market cap (currently $1.79 trillion). 

In contrast, many analysts would likely suggest that SOL has a much higher growth potential due to its relatively smaller market cap ($70B+) and greater degree of utility, since it can host smart contracts and DeFi dApps significantly more easily than Bitcoin can. 

Still, investors will likely experience significantly higher volatility if they invest in SOL. In addition, SOL could face competition from faster and more scalable Layer-1s, like Sui or Aptos, and could start to face competition from Ethereum itself if “the Surge” is successful, as this could bring Ethereum’s speeds up to 100,000 TPS.  

Either way, investors should not place money into cryptocurrency investments they cannot afford to lose.