Solana's network crossed 1 billion weekly transactions for the first time in early August, while its tokenized gold market has grown 689.1% over the past year — outpacing every other major layer-1 blockchain. Two network upgrades moving toward completion, alongside a broader rally in gold prices, are reinforcing the network's scalability case heading into Q4.
Solana's network processed 1,012,226,009 transactions between July 27 and August 2, crossing the 1 billion weekly mark for the first time. The milestone lands as two upgrades move toward completion, pointing toward a faster network as Solana heads into the fourth quarter.
Two upgrades push toward faster settlement
The first is a deflationary upgrade that has entered its final voting stage. The second, SIMD-0525, is now live on testnet and cuts slot time from 400 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds, a first step toward a 200-millisecond slot time.
Together, the upgrades reinforce Solana's core strengths as a layer 1 network: high throughput, low-latency finality, and a growing capacity to process activity. The transaction record shows the improvements aren't just theoretical — they're already showing up on-chain.
Tokenized gold outpaces SOL's own price gain
The surge in activity isn't being driven by SOL's price, however. The token is up just over 1.8% so far this month, lagging Cardano's 11% gain over the same period. Instead, the focus has shifted to Solana's fundamentals.
Over the past year, Solana has led all major layer-1 networks in real-world asset growth, particularly in tokenized gold, one of the fastest-growing segments in that market. Since August 2025, Solana's tokenized gold market cap has grown 689.1%, averaging 18.8% month-over-month. That's more than twice the year-over-year growth recorded by BNB Chain and roughly 4.6 times the growth seen on Avalanche and Ethereum.
Gold's rally adds a tailwind
Gold's own rally reinforces the trend. Spot prices have climbed above $4,200 an ounce, their highest level since June 2022.
If the rally extends, it could drive fresh demand for tokenized gold, an area where Solana already holds a clear growth advantage. That, in turn, could give SOL an added edge heading into Q4, on top of the network's own transaction growth.
Source: AMBCrypto
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