The following is a guest post and opinion from Hart Lambur, Co-Founder of RIsk Labs (UMA and Across).
Solana’s recent growth didn’t come at Ethereum’s expense. It expanded the total crypto user base. Instead of pulling users away from Ethereum, Solana served as a gateway for new entrants into web3. With fast transactions and low fees, and a vibrant app layer, it became the ideal onboarding ramp for the latest wave of memecoin traders.
Like it or not, memecoins like HarryPotterObamaSonicInu and Fartcoin weren’t just noise; they introduced millions of people to crypto, many for the first time. Solana wasn’t just where they made their first trade – it was their first real interaction with the web3 ecosystem. And while many lost money, some of those users stuck around.
The question now is: how do we ensure they stay, and experience more of what web3 offers beyond speculation? As Vitalik put it last year about memecoins, there is an “opportunity here to try to create something more positive-sum and long-lasting.”
From Spectators to Residents
This influx of new users presents a rare opportunity for crypto. At its peak, Solana’s memecoin boom helped drive a $47.9 billion market cap. Yes, memecoins are down 76% since their December 2024 all-time high, but Solana didn’t just fuel speculation; it onboarded real users and real capital. While the memecoin craze may be short-lived, the participants it attracted don’t have to be.
Crypto has long promised mass adoption, and now, we have the chance to deliver on that promise. But this growth comes with its own set of challenges. If we don’t make it easy for new users to navigate the broader ecosystem – limiting their experience to just one blockchain or a single use case – we risk losing the momentum, capital, and growth that come with it.
The Shift from Onboarding to Retention
Attracting users is no longer the main challenge. Memecoins on Solana opened that door for a new generation, just like ICOs, DeFi Summer, and NFTs before. The real test is ensuring the broader web3 ecosystem is as seamless and intuitive as the most user-friendly blockchains and use cases. Solana still feels separate from the broader Ethereum ecosystem, much like the various Ethereum L2s used to feel. If we fail to make it easy for users to explore different ecosystems after the excitement around trends like memecoins fades, we’ll lose them just as quickly as they arrived.
In the past, moving from one chain to another (whether to Ethereum, Base, or another L2) felt complicated and costly. It’s much like arriving in an exciting new city, eager to explore, only to realize that the best destinations are hard to reach due to outdated transit systems. This is how crypto feels for many users today: full of potential, yet bogged down by friction at every step. This friction isn’t inevitable and we now have the tools to remove it.
Crosschain Infrastructure Offers the Solution
Crosschain infrastructure can provide the solution. Industry-wide standards like ERC-7683 allow web3 apps to handle complex multi-step crosschain transactions as a single user request. Authored by Across and Uniswap, the standard enables developers to hide the complexity of interacting with multiple chains while still leveraging their combined power. Users benefit from the best of both worlds: the simplicity of one chain with the scalability of many.
The Future is Unified
Solana’s recent user growth illustrates how UX optimization can drive onboarding at scale. But onboarding is just one side of the equation – retention is the real test. For web3 to truly grow, it needs to feel like one seamless ecosystem, not a collection of fragmented networks. In the same way ERC-7683 and intents have unified Ethereum L2s, we must give users the same seamless interactions with Solana.
Ethereum, Solana, and every other chain aren’t in a zero-sum battle. The future isn’t about which chain wins. It’s about making web3 work as a unified, intuitive experience. This means building infrastructure that connects users across chains fast, simplifying complexity, and making the entire ecosystem feel cohesive. Web3 will only scale when users stop thinking about chains entirely, just like no one thinks about TCP/IP when browsing the internet. That’s the future we’re building toward.
