Founders of projects in the Solana ecosystem embrace memecoins but say artificial intelligence agents are overrated and worry about the network’s mounting maximum extractable value (MEV) problem, according to survey data revealed on Jan. 3.
In a Blockworks Research survey of 42 founders on Solana, approximately 76% described memecoins as “mostly good.” They also expressed skepticism about AI agents, with 16% saying they are “the most overrated Solana sector,” the survey found.
Additionally, the founders said if they couldn’t build on Solana, they would opt for either Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2, or Sui, a layer 1 competing with Solana, according to the survey.
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Memecoins, AI drive inflows
In 2024, Solana’s total value locked (TVL) had surged from around $1.5 billion in January to nearly $8.5 billion by December, according to data from DefiLlama.
Since 2023, Solana (SOL) has outperformed Ether (ETH) by approximately eight times, according to data from TradingView.
Solana’s rise has largely been because “retail traders increasingly enter the crypto market through Solana [as] speculation intensifies around Solana-based memecoins and AI agent tokens,” Grayscale said in a December research note.
In 2024, the total market capitalization of memecoins increased from around $20 billion to more than $120 billion, according to data from CoinGecko.
Solana’s Pump.fun has been a major driver. The memecoin platform’s total volume has surpassed $8.5 billion since launching in January, according to DefiLlama. It has periodically surpassed the Ethereum network in 24-hour revenue.
Meanwhile, tokens tied to AI agents — machines pursuing complex goals autonomously — bootstrapped approximately $16 billion in aggregate market capitalization in 2024, largely during the fourth quarter, according to CoinGecko.
Since October, AI agents have swarmed social media platform X, pumping nearly a dozen more coins past $100-million market capitalizations, largely on Solana. They include Zerebro (ZEREBRO), Fartcoin (FART) and ai16z (AI16Z).
While “2025 will be massive for AI agents […] crypto AI agents can be a bubble if you look at just the narrative, where most are scams or will never deliver,” Condz, founder of Web3 startup Acolyte AI, said in a Dec. 29 post on X.
Mounting MEV concerns
Meanwhile, a plurality of Solana founders — more than 20% — identified MEV or sandwiching as “Solana’s biggest issue.”
Users pay validators tips to prioritize transactions during block building and to order certain transactions ahead of others within blocks. This helps users ensure transactions are properly executed but also contributes to higher transaction costs.
In 2024, Solana’s validators earned more from MEV than Ethereum’s for the first time. This coincided with transaction fees on the Solana network nearly tripling, according to data from Dune Analytics.
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