Solana Surpasses Ethereum in Total Economic Value for a Single Day

According to U.Today, Solana, a blockchain network, generated more Total Economic Value (TEV) than Ethereum on May 12, marking a first in its history. Blockworks Research reported that Solana's TEV reached $2,248,681, outpacing Ethereum's $1,977,416. TEV, a metric combining transaction fees and miner/extractor value (MEV), is often used to gauge the utility and adoption of a blockchain network. Chris Burniske, a former Ark Invest analyst, commented on this development, suggesting that it's important to monitor L1s that maintain their annual expansion in the form of TEV. A higher TEV can indicate increased usage and demand, potentially offering more flexibility in a network's economic policies. However, this achievement has sparked debate among Solana and Ethereum users. Critics argue that comparing Solana's TEV with Ethereum's without considering layer-2 (L2) solutions is misleading. L2 solutions, built on top of Ethereum to enhance scalability and reduce fees, offload some activity from the main Ethereum blockchain (L1) while remaining a crucial part of it. Critics suggest that since some Ethereum activity has moved to L2s, these should be included in the comparison. Despite the criticism, Burniske maintains that comparing TEV across blockchains remains valuable. He explained that each L2 operates in its own blockspace environment, and TEV comparisons are typically made on an L1-to-L1 basis. However, some may disagree with this approach and consider L2s an inseparable part of larger ecosystems like Ethereum, which has struggled with high fees in the past. Currently, Ethereum fees sometimes drop even below those of Tron.