Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL): a comparison
Ethereum and Solana set side by side: how the quotes moved, how the protocols are built and what tasks each one was made for.
Specifications of ETH and SOL
| Ethereum (ETH) | Solana (SOL) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2,118.59 | $86.10 |
| Ticker | ETH | SOL |
| Type | coin of its own network | coin of its own network |
| Launched | 2015 | 2020 |
| Built by | Vitalik Buterin | Anatoly Yakovenko |
| Consensus | Proof of Stake | Proof of Stake + Proof of History |
| Block | ~12 sec | — |
| Supply cap | no cap | no cap |
| Privacy | transfers are public | transfers are public |
| In circulation | 122.21 M ETH | 591.15 M SOL |
| Market cap | $258.91 B | $50.9 B |
| Rank by cap | #2 | #7 |
Source: CoinGecko, Nov 10, 2026 12:57. How these numbers are counted
Price movement: ETH and SOL
The start of the period is taken as 100 for both prices: the chart shows the difference in movement, not the quotes themselves.
| Period | ETH | SOL |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | −5.29% | −5.92% |
| 30 days | −14.9% | −21.45% |
| 90 days | +13.34% | +13.37% |
The link between their daily moves over the quarter is 0.88 (they travel together).
The tasks ETH and SOL were made for
- Contracts and applicationsEthereum and Solana
How Ethereum and Solana are built
How Ethereum works
In the autumn of 2022 the network moved from mining to Proof of Stake: blocks are proposed and confirmed by validators who have locked up ETH, and a new slot opens every 12 seconds. Contract code is executed by the EVM virtual machine. Part of the fee on every transaction is destroyed, so the final supply of the coin depends on how actively the network is used.
What Ethereum is for
ETH is needed to pay for gas, is posted as collateral in DeFi, takes part in staking and serves as the unit of account of the ecosystem. Layer-2 networks — Arbitrum, Optimism and others — also charge their fees in ETH, so the coin serves a sizeable part of the crypto market.
How Solana works
On top of Proof of Stake it runs Proof of History — a cryptographic clock that sets the order of transactions. A slot lasts about 400 milliseconds, and processing runs in parallel. The SPL standard is used for tokens.
What Solana is for
Network fees are paid in SOL, and the same coin is staked to secure the blockchain. Solana hosts decentralised exchanges, payment services, NFT marketplaces and dozens of well-known tokens.