Solana & Base Still Lead Despite Lower Mindshare in 2025

Which Blockchain Ecosystems Are the Most Popular?

The Solana ecosystem has recorded its second consecutive year as the most popular blockchain ecosystem, capturing 26.79% of global interest in chain-specific crypto narratives in 2025. However, the Solana ecosystem’s mindshare has shrunk significantly by 12.0 percentage points from the 38.79% it had dominated with last year. This reflects the layer 1 blockchain’s struggles to expand beyond its close association with meme coin speculation, as well as Solana’s rangebound price despite wider institutional adoption marked by the US ETFs launch.

As a result, the Solana ecosystem dropped out of the top five for the most popular crypto narratives ranking this year, after being overtaken by AI agents and the Made in USA narratives. It remains to be seen whether the Solana narrative will be able to ride on new catalysts next year, as momentum from its comeback story runs out.

The second most popular blockchain ecosystem is crypto exchange Coinbase’s Base ecosystem, which accounted for 13.94% of global investor interest in chain-specific narratives this year. The Base ecosystem also experienced a mindshare decrease by a smaller 2.9 percentage points, compared to the 16.81% it recorded last year. This is despite constructive developments in the Base ecosystem, such as the Coinbase Wallet rebranding into the Base app, Shopify’s partnership for USDC payments and x402 facilitation. 

The Ethereum ecosystem similarly retained its position as the third most popular blockchain ecosystem again this year, with 13.43% of global interest in chain-specific narratives. Mindshare for the Ethereum ecosystem grew by 2.7 percentage points year-on-year (YoY), narrowing its gap with the Base ecosystem even as the investors remain critical about ETH price action and the role of the Ethereum blockchain amid intensifying competition.

Sui & BNB Chain Lead Gains in Mindshare

Sui and BNB Chain moved up the rankings to emerge as the 4th and 5th most popular blockchain ecosystems in 2025, after mindshare in both ecosystems more than doubled.

Specifically, the Sui ecosystem recorded the largest mindshare growth of 6.9 percentage points YoY to reach 11.77%, putting it close behind the Ethereum ecosystem. In contrast to the TON ecosystem which saw its ranking drop from a mindshare decrease of 5.0 percentage points YoY, the Sui ecosystem seems to have positioned itself as a serious contender among chain-specific narratives.

Meanwhile, Binance’s BNB Chain ecosystem enjoyed a 4.9 percentage point increase YoY to capture 9.05% in mindshare. Interest in the BNB Chain ecosystem has been strengthened by the launch of Binance Alpha in May, which has since put BNB Chain in the lead for onchain trading volumes. The ecosystem has also benefited from the returning involvement of Binance founder CZ and resilient BNB price action.

XRP Ledger, Bittensor & Hyperliquid Lead New Entrants to Top Rankings

Among blockchain ecosystems that were added this year, two stand out for securing spots among the top ten: XRP Ledger ecosystem which placed 6th with a sizable mindshare of 4.68%, and AI-focused Bittensor ecosystem which captured 1.91% of mindshare to rank 9th. Other new blockchain ecosystems which have managed to rank in the top 20 are the Berachain ecosystem and Abstract ecosystem.

Another major newcomer to the top ecosystem rankings was Hyperliquid. The Hyperliquid ecosystem saw mindshare increase from just 0.01% when it was first added last year, to 1.57% this year, such that its rank rose by 44 positions. Aside from leading renewed excitement around perpetuals trading on DEXs, Hyperliquid also marked a key milestone in the stablecoins narrative with its USDH launch. Given the strong community and robust DEX infrastructure, it will be worth watching to see how well the ecosystem develops beyond the Hyperliquid product itself.

Overall, 12 blockchain ecosystems have managed to rank among the top 20 for two consecutive years, whereas notable ones that lost mindshare and were displaced include Aptos, Tron, Cosmos and Sei. Besides these existing competitors, investors will likely also be keeping an eye on the Monad ecosystem (0.23% mindshare) and Plasma ecosystem (0.16%) among the rising chain-specific narratives in 2026.

Most Popular Blockchain Ecosystems 2025

In 2025, there were a total of 62 blockchain ecosystems with a non-zero percentage of mindshare. The top 20 most popular blockchain ecosystems represented a majority 95.60% of global interest in chain-specific narratives and are ranked as follows:

Most Popular Blockchain Ecosystems 2024

Out of 67 blockchain ecosystems in 2024, the 20 most popular blockchain ecosystems accounted for a combined 96.95% of global investor interest and are ranked as follows:

Methodology

The study examined interest in blockchain ecosystems based on CoinGecko’s non-botted global web traffic, from January 1 to November 11, 2024, and January 1 to December 14, 2025. For the purpose of the study, only ecosystems with active listed coins and a non-zero percentage share of traffic were included.

This study is for illustrative and informational purposes only, and is not financial advice. Always do your own research and be careful when putting your money into any crypto or financial asset.

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Curious to find out more about our previous research studies & statistics? Check out this one we did on the DEX to CEX ratio for both spot and perpetuals trading volumes.