5 Busiest Blockchains Of 2025 And What Powered Their Growth 2026

Onchain data from Nansen showed Solana, BNB Chain, Base, Tron and NEAR handled the most transactions in 2025, as users looked for high‑throughput, low‑fee networks.

Onchain analytics firm Nansen ranked Solana, BNB Chain, Base, Tron and NEAR Protocol as the busiest blockchains in 2025.

Solana led the pack with 23.01 billion transactions, while BNB Chain followed with 3.89 billion. Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 Base handled 3.29 billion for third, as Tron trailed with 3.22 billion and NEAR came in fifth with 1.89 billion.

Even as 2025 was marked by institutional adoption, retail-focused use cases continued to dominate transaction volumes, particularly on blockchains with low fees and high throughput.

Solana’s dominance came on the back of a trading boom that pushed it to the top of decentralized exchange (DEX) rankings in early 2025.

CoinGecko reported that Solana DEX trading dominated 40% of the industry’s market share by recording $293.7 billion in the first quarter of 2025. It was driven in part by a memecoin frenzy around celebrity and political tokens like $TRUMP, a Solana-based token launched on Jan. 18 tied to US President Donald Trump.

DefiLlama data showed that Solana remained among the top chains by DEX volume throughout the year, with monthly volumes around or above the $100 billion mark.

Related: Solana enters 2026 with last-minute boost in RWA momentum

BNB Chain’s roughly 3.89 billion transactions, per Nansen, coincided with the rise of its own memecoin scene.

Base ranked third by 2025 transaction count as it leveraged direct distribution from Coinbase’s user base. A 2026 outlook by Messari researcher AJC said that Base’s protocol revenue grew by about 30 times in 2025, capturing 62% of total L2 revenue. The same research noted that Base’s ecosystem now spans DEXs, AI‑linked apps and prediction platforms.

Source: CoinTelegraph