Blockchain analytics firm Nansen has released its latest weekly activity report, and the numbers reveal a clear leader, but also a major surprise.
Solana once again secured the #1 spot with 424.7 million transactions, maintaining its position as the busiest chain in crypto despite a slight 1.7% drop from the previous week. Even with the dip, Solana continues to outpace every other network by a wide margin in raw throughput.
BNB Chain followed in second place with 110.2 million transactions, down a sharper 8.2%, reflecting a cooling of activity across its DeFi and gaming ecosystems.
This week in chain activity:
🥇 @solana – 424.7M txns (⬇️ 1.7%)
🥈 @BNBCHAIN – 110.2M txns (⬇️ 8.2%)
🥉 @base – 102M txns (⬆️ 20%)🎖️ Honorable mention: @trondao – 73M txns and rising pic.twitter.com/XLcxSc0QYb
— Nansen 🧭 (@nansen_ai) November 17, 2025
But the standout performer this week wasn’t a top-two chain – it was Base, Coinbase’s Layer-2 network.
Base surged to 102 million transactions, marking a 20% increase, the strongest growth among all major chains measured. This jump pushes Base into a solid third place as its ecosystem accelerates, supported by social apps, memecoins, and stablecoin flows settling on the L2.
Nansen also highlighted Tron, which logged 73 million transactions and continues rising, supported by its dominance in USDT settlement across emerging markets.
Across broader metrics:
- Solana led with more than 17.28M active addresses (+0.6%).
- Base and Tron also saw healthy address growth at 1.3% and 10% respectively.
- Fee markets varied sharply, with Polygon and Stellar showing strong week-over-week increases, while BNB Chain fees dropped by 31%.
The data underscores a broader trend: Solana remains unmatched in raw performance, but Base is rapidly emerging as crypto’s fastest-growing chain, and perhaps the one to watch heading into the final months of 2025.
