Solana’s New Addresses Surge 124% While SOL Price Drops 9%. What’s Going On?

Network growth versus token value

New addresses on Solana have surged 124% since early September 2026, according to on-chain analytics firm Santiment. This increase translates to around 1.71 million new wallets being created each day. Additionally, the number of addresses holding stablecoins on the network surpassed 14 million on October 7, setting a new record.

However, the SOL price moved in the opposite direction. On October 9, SOL was trading at nearly $111, marking a 9% drop over the last week and putting it about 62% below its all-time high of $293. Despite the recent dip, it has gained 7% over the past 30 days. Just four days ago, SOL was trading near $121.

With so many new wallets appearing on Solana, why isn’t the price following suit?

Understanding wallet inflation

The figure from Santiment reflects the growth in network addresses, which counts addresses appearing on the blockchain for the first time. An address acts like a public account number, and creating one is quick and free, allowing individuals or trading algorithms to set up multiple addresses.

This growth could include airdrop seekers using multiple wallets to qualify for free token distributions, along with trading bots and exchanges managing multiple accounts. Each new address counts like a new user, inflating growth numbers. Furthermore, Solana’s impressive transaction count can also be misleading, as automated trading activity contributed to about 5.2 billion non-vote transactions in August alone.

The 14 million stablecoin addresses matter more, since users must move real dollars onto Solana to hold stablecoins there. Still, like the address count, this figure may include multiple addresses per user.

Fees and capital flows

Transaction fees are the primary link between network activity and SOL’s price, as each transaction incurs a small fee paid in SOL. Since Solana is designed to be cost-effective, even with billions of transactions, the fees generated are minimal relative to its overall market value, which sits around $65 billion.

Additionally, many new users come to Solana to trade dollar-pegged tokens rather than buy SOL itself. Investors can now trade tokenized shares of companies like Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla on Solana, and a stablecoin holder needs only a tiny amount of SOL to cover transaction fees.

Solana continues to improve speed, planning to reduce its slot time—the time it takes to confirm each batch of transactions—to 200 milliseconds on October 9, down from 400 milliseconds earlier this year. Faster transaction times improve payment processing and the trading experience, but they don’t necessarily increase demand for SOL.

In the short term, SOL’s price tends to reflect money flows into and out of investments. U.S. spot Solana ETFs experienced a net outflow of about $17.7 million over three consecutive days from October 5 to October 7, according to SoSoValue, following a previous week where inflows were just $2.4 million.

A net outflow means investors withdrew more funds from these ETFs than they deposited, prompting fund managers to sell SOL to cover the withdrawals. This selling trend correlates much more directly with SOL’s price decline than the increase in new addresses does.

Outlook for SOL holders

The surge in Solana addresses alone isn’t enough to boost SOL’s price. New addresses are easy to create, and transaction numbers reflect network activity but don’t indicate monetary value. Low fees also mean limited demand for SOL. For SOL holders, the downside is that a bustling network can attract more activity while the token’s price falls, especially if investors continue to withdraw funds.

This dynamic could shift if Solana ETFs see consistent net inflows again, bringing fresh capital to support the token’s value. If SOL recovers the 9% loss it posted over the last week, it could signal that buyers are backing this usage surge with their investments. However, if the recent 7% gain over 30 days turns into a loss, the increase in addresses may simply be background noise.