The recent launch of TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins on Solana underscores both the potential and challenges of the network, as it copes with surging transaction volumes and demonstrates resilience despite dApp-related bottlenecks.
Days before becoming President, Donald Trump introduced a TRUMP meme coin on Solana, followed by a MELANIA coin from former First Lady Melania Trump. These releases triggered massive congestion on the Solana network as millions of users rushed to trade.
Speaking with BeInCrypto, Titan CEO Chris Chung attributed the congestion to decentralized applications (dApps) rather than the blockchain, asserting that the network's performance indicates readiness for mainstream adoption.
Just two days before assuming the presidency, Trump announced the TRUMP meme coin on social media, which quickly amassed a $14.5 billion market cap and $26 billion trading volume within a day on Solana.
Inspired by this success, Melania Trump launched the MELANIA coin, which saw its market cap soar above $5 billion, causing a $7.5 billion drop in the TRUMP token within minutes. This surge affected Solana's network performance.
The Solana network experienced a deluge of transactions following these unexpected launches, leading to congestion and transaction failures across platforms. As Chris Chung noted, while the network handled the initial TRUMP launch without issue, the MELANIA debut prompted large trading volumes and trading adjustments.
Chung emphasized that these bottlenecks were due to dApps managing transactions rather than inherent blockchain issues. As transaction volumes peaked, Solana wallet provider Phantom and infrastructure provider Jito Labs reported significant strains on their systems.
During the heightened trading activity, arbitrage bots failed to mitigate price discrepancies effectively. These automated systems usually stabilize prices but couldn't keep up during the MELANIA launch, leading to significant price deviations between token pools.
Despite the congestion, Solana maintained network functionality, processing $10 billion in trading volume over 24 hours. Chris Chung highlighted the blockchain's continued operation and priority fee mechanism as indicators of its resilience and readiness for increased activity levels.
The network's ability to cope without outages, even under intense pressure, shows improvements since past incidents. Following these meme coin launches, it becomes evident that Solana is gearing up for wider adoption.
To prepare for similar events in the future, dApps on Solana must enhance their infrastructure to handle peak traffic efficiently. Chris Chung suggested that dApps need to plan for worst-case scenarios by improving scalability to match potential surges in demand.
Firedancer, a new validator client developed by Jump Crypto for Solana, is poised to offer increased resilience and transaction processing capabilities, potentially handling up to one million transactions per second. Currently on testnet, it is expected to go live on the mainnet soon, bolstering Solana's capacity to support large-scale adoption.
The dual launch of TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins has spotlighted Solana's strengths and areas for improvement. With innovations like Firedancer, Solana is better positioned to meet growing interest in its platform, while dApps need to ensure they are equipped for future demands. As the adoption of cryptocurrencies accelerates, enhancing infrastructure will be critical to sustaining network performance and user satisfaction.