2025’s Busiest Blockchains: A Year of Institutional Adoption and Retail Growth
Onchain analytics firm Nansen has released its rankings for the busiest blockchains in 2025, with Solana, BNB Chain, Base, Tron, and NEAR Protocol taking the top spots. According to the report, Solana led the way with an impressive 23.01 billion transactions, followed by BNB Chain with 3.89 billion, and Base with 3.29 billion. Tron and NEAR Protocol rounded out the top five with 3.22 billion and 1.89 billion transactions, respectively.
Even though 2025 was marked by significant institutional adoption, retail-focused use cases continued to dominate transaction volumes, particularly on low-fee, high-throughput blockchains. This trend is evident in the growth of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and the rise of memecoin scenes on various blockchains. 
The five largest blockchains by activity in 2025. Source: Nansen
Solana’s DEX Boom and Memecoin Madness
Solana’s dominance can be attributed to a trading boom that propelled the company to the top of the DEX rankings in early 2025. According to CoinGecko, Solana DEX trading dominated 40% of the industry market share in the first quarter of 2025, with revenue of $293.7 billion. This was partly due to a memecoin frenzy surrounding celebrity and political tokens, such as $TRUMP, a Solana-based token launched on January 18 in connection with US President Donald Trump.
DefiLlama data showed that Solana was among the top chains by DEX volume throughout the year, with monthly volumes at or above the $100 billion mark. This growth is a testament to the blockchain’s ability to support high-volume, low-latency transactions. Related: Solana starts 2026 with a short-term increase in RWA momentum
The BNB chain’s approximately 3.89 billion transactions coincided with the rise of its own memecoin scene. 
BSC leads blockchain networks | Source: Cointelegraph
Base, Tron, and NEAR Protocol: A Closer Look
Base ranked third in transaction count in 2025, leveraging direct distribution through Coinbase’s user base. A 2026 outlook from Messari researcher AJC states that Base’s protocol revenue has increased approximately thirty-fold in 2025, accounting for 62% of total L2 revenue. The same research revealed that Base’s ecosystem now includes DEXs, AI-linked apps, and prediction platforms. Related: Base’s creator coin experiment faces resistance after Nick Shirley launches
Tron’s 3.22 billion transactions reflected its role as the backbone of the stablecoin economy. In June 2025, TRON DAO announced that more than half of USDt (USDT) in circulation was issued on its blockchain. Its stablecoin offering has grown by around 40% since the beginning of the year, with daily transfer volumes in the tens of billions.
NEAR Protocol rounded out the top five with 1.89 billion transactions in 2025, according to Nansen’s ranking. NEAR reported about 46 million users in May, putting it alongside Solana and Tron in activity metrics. Beyond the numbers, an important part of NEAR’s story in 2025 has been its role in the privacy narrative over Zcash (ZEC), whose comeback was fueled in part by the integration of Electric Coin Company’s Zashi wallet into NEAR’s Intents system.
This integration helped push Zcash’s protected supply to record levels and led to a surge in activity on NEAR Intents, including a day with over $17 million in Zcash-related volume. For more information, visit https://cointelegraph.com/news/these-5-blockchains-led-2025?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss_tag_blockchain&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
