I found an interesting phenomenon while browsing the English blogger circle: $ETH Maxi and $SOL Maxi are always at odds with each other. The ETH side mocks the SOL side for its low stablecoin adoption rate, while the SOL side ridicules Tom Lee for having a low understanding and only being able to shill. It's so interesting.
But I actually have a viewpoint: the competitive relationship between ETH and SOL has long since ended with the collapse of the "Ethereum Killer" narrative. Why?
1) Ethereum's ability to firmly hold the position of the largest player in the stablecoin market is the result of multiple factors, including its comprehensive DeFi ecosystem and decentralized security technology base. It is also due to the long-standing competitive advantages of mainstream stablecoins like USDC and USDT, which have been accumulated through years of market expansion. This path dependence is difficult to change in the short term.
But this does not mean that @solana will completely miss the opportunity in the stablecoin arena. With the arrival of stablecoin Summer, the issuance of stablecoins will tend towards a multi-chain environment, and a large number of new stablecoins like USDe, USD1, PYUDS, USDG, etc., will emerge. They will establish their own main camps during the expansion of DeFi economic activities.
Solana, with its first-mover advantage accumulated in new narrative scenarios such as PayFi, AI Agent, and HFT high-frequency trading, is not weak in terms of subsequent stablecoin incremental breakthroughs. Therefore, it is not Solid to determine who is strong or weak solely based on the market share of stablecoins.
2) Previously, new layer 1s like Solana, Avalanche, and BNBChain focused on the narrative of being Ethereum Killers, competing with Ethereum in terms of high performance and TPS arms race. However, it is now clear to everyone that a TPS Show without effective ecological support cannot stand on its own. Therefore, the narrative framework of high TPS has already become desensitized.
The new narrative logic is about who can drive the large-scale adoption of the Wall Street structure. Ethereum, with its advantages of decentralization and security architecture, will be the first choice for institutional asset allocation, but Solana is taking a different path, first attracting incremental users from Generation Z through the MEME culture, and then enhancing performance with upgrades like Alpenglow consensus and Firedancer client upgrades, which can increase the transaction speed to within 150ms.
In this way, similar financial business innovation entities like @HyperliquidX may emerge in the Solana ecosystem to bridge the gap between the DeFi ecosystem and Ethereum. This targeted service for Wall Street financial product demand will obviously become an advantage for Solana to overtake, much faster than Ethereum's implementation of L1 performance enhancement strategies.
3) It is evident that the competitive dimensions of Ethereum and Solana have completely diverged. Ethereum will continuously consolidate its position by locking in its global financial settlement layer advantage, while Solana will anchor its vision on an on-chain Nasdaq, constantly expanding the integration scenarios of TradFi through its performance advantages and blue-blood genes.
To some extent, ETH Maxis will still see the glow of decentralized and secure geekism, while SOL Maxis will become the new pathfinder in the Internet Capital Market (ICM).
Therefore, ETH Maxi and SOL Maxi do not need to be in direct opposition at all; instead, they have a complementary coexistence, much like Android and iOS. The former is open and inclusive but has a solid foundation, while the latter is closed and efficient but excels in user experience.
The market will ultimately prove that the coexistence and advancement of SOL and ETH are merely expanding the boundaries of Crypto. No matter which side you stand on, the outcome will not be bad. So I am a Crypto Maxi!
