Solana’s validators saw a record surge in fees and tips, totaling over 100,000 SOL, worth approximately $25.8 million, thanks to the intense trading of the TRUMP and MELANIA tokens.
The spike in activity peaked on January 20, with over 87,000 SOL earned by validators, largely driven by the rally of the TRUMP token, followed by increased bets on MELANIA. This surge prompted 24.7 million transaction bundles to ensure successful processing.
Of Solana’s 4.5 million daily active users, 1.5 million were unique tippers, highlighting strong interest in token sniping on platforms such as Meteora and Orca.
On Solana, bundles refer to groups of transactions processed together by validators. Tippers, who are either users or bots, include additional fees to incentivize validators to prioritize their transactions in the block.
The heightened trading activity boosted passive income for stakers to an annualized rate of 7.14%, while inflation rates dropped below 5%. By Wednesday morning, TRUMP was trading at $42, up 25% in the last 24 hours, while MELANIA experienced slight losses, trading at $4.
