The hype around Solana has been easy to spot lately. With SOL trading above $136 and daily network activity surging, bullish calls are getting louder — including predictions that Solana (SOL) could end up hosting 95% of crypto users. But this week, co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko offered a cold dose of realism: not without a ton of work.

Yakovenko’s comment is not a dismissal, but rather a reminder. Solana might be leading on execution, but translating that into dominance will take more than speed. Turning high engagement into high retention — that’s the real work now.

Looking at metrics, Solana’s total value locked sits around $8.819 billion, trailing Ethereum’s $50.234 billion. Despite that, it’s punching above its weight in volume. Solana leads all chains in daily DEX trading, with over $1.719 billion in 24-hour volume — ahead of Ethereum’s $924.73 million and BNB Chain’s $654.88 million.

Stablecoin activity tells a similar story. Solana hosts roughly $12.71 billion in stablecoins, heavily dominated by USDC, which makes up 76.52% of the supply. Ethereum, by contrast, supports a stablecoin market topping $122.279 billion, reflecting deeper liquidity and use across lending, derivatives and structured products.

Validator incentives on Solana remain slim. Annual rewards come in around 424 SOL per validator, or roughly $35,000 at current prices — enough to cover costs, but thin compared to other ecosystems with stronger staking yields or native fee models.

So yes, Solana is fast. It is cheap. It is where a growing number of users are trading. But the broader DeFi picture is still forming — and so far, usage is not fully converting into capital depth or protocol diversity.