While Solana (SOL) is widely known as the home for meme coins, its founders have surprisingly been hesitant to accept AI agents. They have also expressed concerns about the increasing maximum extractable value (MEV) issue which continues to cause problems for the network. Memecoins And AI Drive Inflows Out of 42 Solana founders, 76% viewed meme coins positively, while 16% described AI agents as overrated. When asked about alternatives to Solana, most founders indicated they would choose either Base, Coinbase, or Sui. The total value locked (TVL) for Solana increased to nearly $8.5 billion in 2024, with retail traders speculating on Solana-based meme coins and AI tokens. The meme coin market surged to $120 billion, with Pump.fun playing a key role. Meanwhile, AI agent tokens reached $16 billion in market capitalization, with several Solana-based meme coins like Fartcoin gaining significant traction. Growing MEV Concerns And The Winternitz Vault Over 20% of the aforementioned founders identified MEV, particularly sandwiching, as the single biggest issue plaguing Solana right now as it increases transaction costs and can lead to various inefficiencies. Last year, Solana validators earned more through MEV than Ethereum (ETH), coinciding with a rise in transaction fees. Meanwhile, in order to combat potential quantum computing risks, Solana recently introduced the Winternitz Vault , which creates new keys for each transaction and protects against quantum attacks. The vault is an opt-in feature, not part of network-wide updates.
