Best Solana Projects in 2024

Top Solana Crypto Projects in 2024

Solana is home to some of the most innovative blockchain projects, offering opportunities in DeFi, NFTs, and decentralized infrastructure. With its unmatched speed and low fees, Solana has become a go-to network for developers and investors.

After analyzing over 50 top Solana projects based on market performance, holders count, community, and innovation, we’ve narrowed down the best five in the table below.

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1. Jupiter

Jupiter is the best decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator on Solana, giving traders superior access to the best token swap prices across the network. The platform now processes an average of $490 million in daily trading volume, supported by over 815 thousand unique wallets.

It also supports cross-chain asset transfers via its native bridge, enabling users to move tokens between Solana and networks like Ethereum, BNB Chain, Linea, and Base. In January 2024, Jupiter launched its native token, JUP, through one of Solana’s largest airdrop campaigns.

By 2024 Jupiter has introduced several key trading features that make the platform feel like a centralized exchange. These tools include limit orders, dollar-cost averaging (DCA), and a decentralized perpetual exchange, which supports up to 100x leverage.

• Market Cap: $1.58 billion
• Price Change in 2024: -26.71%
• Top Competitors: Drift, Raydium, Orca

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2. Jito

Jito is the most popular liquid staking protocol on Solana, helping users earn higher rewards through MEV (Maximum Extractable Value). Backed by Multicoin Capital, Jito issues JitoSOL tokens, which let users earn staking rewards while keeping their assets liquid.

Jito’s MEV auction system reduces network spam while maximizing returns for stakers and validators. Its user-friendly dashboard and community governance via the JTO token make it a top choice for staking on Solana, similar to Lido on Ethereum.

In 2024, Jito reintroduced its restaking feature, allowing users to stake SOL and liquid staking tokens across multiple protocols for boosted rewards. The platform now secures over 11 million SOL in total value locked (TVL) and offers an annual yield (APY) of 8.12%.

• Market Cap: $380 million
• Price Change in 2024: +44.77%
• Top Competitors: Sanctum, Marinade, Binance Staked SOL

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3. Peanut the Squirrel

Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) is the best Solana meme coin as it has quickly become a sensation, combining social media hype, political drama, and tragic backstory to capture attention. The coin’s fast rise includes a 2,890% gain in 2 weeks, hitting a peak market cap of over $2 billion.

Launched in November 2024 on Pump.fun and traded initially on Raydium, the coin gained traction following tweets from Elon Musk and its connection to a viral story about a pet squirrel named Peanut, which also was a central focus in the last week of the US elections.

Despite the developer selling their holdings early for $73,000, PNUT continues to attract attention, much like established meme coins such as Dogecoin and Pepe. Its strong cultural moat, fueled by political discourse and celebrity endorsement, suggests it could remain relevant for the long term.

• Market Cap: $1.58 billion
• Price Change in 2024: +2,890%
• Top Competitors: Bonk, dogwifhat, Popcat, GOAT

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4. Grass

Grass is the leading decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) on Solana ahead of competitors like Helium and Render. Its unique “Sovereign Data Rollup” ensures ethical, community-powered data collection, supporting applications in AI training and research.

Leveraging a network of nearly 2.6 million user-run nodes, Grass collects and structures public web data, creating a decentralized alternative to the monopolized data sources traditionally dominated by large corporations. Everyone can start using Grass easily by downloading the Grass app or extension.

In October 2024, Grass conducted the largest airdrop in Solana’s history, with over 1.51 million addresses claiming GRASS tokens. The airdrop generated massive community participation, temporarily crashing Solana’s Phantom wallet due to high activity.

• Market Cap: $580 million
• Price Change in 2024: +193.95%
• Top Competitors: Helium, Render, Nosana

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5. io.net

The best AI project on Solana is io.net which provides decentralized GPU and CPU to power machine learning developers. Its core product, IO Cloud, offers adaptable computing resources at greatly lower costs than traditional providers, with payments supported via Solana or credit cards.

By pooling GPUs from data centers, crypto miners, and idle hardware, io.net ensures affordable and accessible computing for machine learning applications. The project also raised $30 million in Series A funding, backed by Multicoin Capital and Solana Ventures, at a $1 billion valuation.

With its $IO token supporting staking, payments, and governance, io.net provides a cost-efficient option for AI developers transitioning to decentralized infrastructure. In 2024, io.net partnered with TARS Protocol to pair decentralized GPU clusters with Artificial Intelligence.

• Market Cap: $272 million
• Price Change in 2024: -49.79%
• Top Competitors: GOAT, Render, TARS Protocol
  

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What is Solana?

Solana is a Layer 1 network designed for speed and cost efficiency, using a proof-of-stake mechanism enhanced by a unique proof-of-history (PoH) protocol. Launched in 2020 by Solana Labs, its native cryptocurrency, SOL, permits fast transactions and staking.

The PoH protocol timestamps transactions to improve throughput, enabling Solana to process up to 65,000 transactions per second. With an average transaction cost of just $0.00025, Solana also features a high-performance runtime for DeFi projects, NFTs, and Web3 tools.

Developers favor Solana for its low-latency infrastructure, powerful support for Rust and C-based programming, and active funding for SOL-native coins. Its capacity to combine high transaction speeds with low fees has made it a top choice for decentralized applications.

Currently, SOL trades above $240, with a market cap of $116 billion, compared to the ecosystem’s combined value of $244.6 billion ($78.7 billion excluding stablecoins). This means that SOL is 1.47x bigger than its beta plays, giving it plenty of room to grow further.

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Upcoming Projects to Solana

Since Solana provides the perfect environment for building, launching, and accessing liquidity, there is a constant race to find new projects with product-market fit. Here are some of the best upcoming projects to Solana currently in testing or tokenless, with potential airdrops:

• Solayer: As a top restaking protocol on Solana with $328 million in total value locked, Solayer still doesn't have a governance token.
• Hedgehog Markets: A small decentralized prediction market where users can bet on real-world events like the recent Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson match.
• Meteora: A zero-slippage, bin-based concentrated liquidity AMM with $173 million in TVL and $100 billion in swap volume, but still tokenless.
• Synatra: A new yield aggregator and synthetic staking protocol offering a user experience similar to traditional receipt-token staking.
• Lulo: A decentralized, tokenless lending aggregator that optimizes user deposits by migrating them to the lending pool with the best yield based on personalized risk settings.

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How to Find New Solana Projects?

With so many successful projects on Solana, an investor has one question: how to find new Solana projects early before anyone else. Well, there are three ways to scalp for early moonshots.

1. Scalping Pump.fun tokens: Solana is a hub for meme coins like PNUT and GOAT, but with hundreds of thousands launched monthly, using a Telegram crypto trading bot can help you spot the best ones more efficiently than doing so manually.
2. Engage with established projects that still haven’t launched a token: Use DeFiLlama’s tokenless projects dashboard, filtered for Solana, and prioritize niche products like Solayer for liquid restaking.
3. Browse presales: Tools like CoinSniper let you find upcoming Solana launches and presales, with filters for audits, KYC, and project categories. Just watch out for promoted listings.

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Bottom Line

Solana’s recovery from its lows below $10 to over $240 is a testament to its resilience and the strength of its ecosystem. Its fast transactions, low fees, and developer-friendly tools make it a top choice for launching and growing blockchain projects.

With the ongoing crypto bull market and a potential SOL ETF in 2025, Solana projects will continue to gain attention. While Jupiter and Jito are likely to maintain their leadership, categories like meme coins, AI crypto projects, and DePIN will remain more fluid, shifting with market trends each quarter.