Solana vs Ethereum: Which Do Institutions Use? Both

Ethereum and Solana are two crypto networks, which are shared records of who owns what, kept in step by many computers. Big financial firms put products on both.

Ethereum holds more stablecoins, which are tokens built to stay worth one US dollar. Solana holds more of BUIDL, a BlackRock fund whose shares are recorded as tokens.

A token is a digital record of who owns something. A tokenised asset is a real-world asset, such as a share of a fund, recorded as a token on a network.

A stablecoin is the cash side. Holders can send it to anyone on the network at any hour. Settlement is the step where money finally changes hands after a trade or a card payment.

Ethereum and Solana both host apps and hold tokens. We explain Ethereum in What Is Ethereum? and compare both with Bitcoin in Ethereum vs Bitcoin vs Solana.

Circle issues USDC. Tether issues USDT. Each company's own page shows how many of its tokens exist on each network. We read Circle's page on 8 November 2026 and Tether's on 7 November 2026.

Ethereum is the biggest network for USDC. Tron is the biggest for USDT. Solana is smaller than Ethereum on both.

For USDC, Circle's page lists $70.46 billion across 38 networks. Ethereum holds $46.18 billion, or 65.5% of USDC. Solana holds $6.85 billion, or 9.7% of USDC. Circle lists no USDC on Tron.

For USDT, Tether's page lists $176.94 billion. Tron holds $92.31 billion, or 52.2% of USDT. Ethereum holds $80.55 billion, or 45.5% of USDT. Solana holds $2.44 billion, or 1.4% of USDT.

The two coins together total $247.41 billion. Of both together, Ethereum holds 51.2%, Solana holds 3.8%, and Tron holds 37.3%. The 52.2% above is a share of USDT alone, while the 51.2% is a share of both coins. Ethereum's holding is 13.6 times Solana's.

These totals count every holder, banks and funds along with individuals and traders. They do not separate the two.

BUIDL is a fund from BlackRock, the asset manager. It is a money market fund, which holds cash and very safe debt and passes the interest on to holders. BUIDL invests in cash and US government debt.

Securitize, a firm that records fund shares as tokens, issues the BUIDL tokens. BlackRock and Securitize launched BUIDL on Ethereum in March 2024. Each token aims to hold a value of $1, so a count of tokens is also a count of dollars (BlackRock launch release, 20 March 2024).

BUIDL now exists on eight networks. Securitize added versions of the fund, called share classes, on five networks on 13 November 2024. It added Solana on 25 March 2025 and BNB Chain on 14 November 2025.

We could read six of the eight.

Chart 2 shows the tokens in existence on those six on 8 November 2026, meaning tokens issued and not yet redeemed. We counted them directly on each network, using the on-network account numbers Securitize lists for the fund. Securitize's releases give no usable number for Aptos or BNB Chain, so we skipped those two.

Solana holds the most BUIDL tokens of the six networks. Avalanche is second. Ethereum is third.

The six hold 1,179.60 million tokens in total. Solana holds 540.61 million, or 45.8% of the six. Avalanche holds 416.69 million, or 35.3%. Ethereum holds 172.64 million, or 14.6%. Solana holds 3.1 times as many as Ethereum.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has put two tokenised funds on both networks. They are My OnChain Net Yield Fund (MONY) and JPMorgan OnChain Liquidity-Token Money Market Fund (JLTXX). Both went onto Ethereum first, then onto Solana on 22 October 2026.

The table lists each use we could confirm from the firm's own announcement. Each row carries the date of that announcement.

Three terms appear in it. Commercial paper is a company's written promise to repay money it borrows for a set period. A deposit token is a token that represents money held in a bank account. USDPT is Western Union's stablecoin.

Date of each firm's own announcement. Source: BlackRock and Securitize, PayPal, Visa, Western Union, and J.P. Morgan releases

J.P. Morgan has rows on both networks. PayPal's stablecoin works on both. Visa lists both among four networks it supports. Western Union appears only on Solana.

Visa's release of 16 December 2025 named two banks, Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, that had started settling with Visa in USDC on Solana. Settling here means the banks and Visa pay each other after card payments. Visa's release of 31 July 2025 listed four supported networks: Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Avalanche.

The stablecoin totals are snapshots from 7 and 8 November 2026. They count every holder. The USDC figures are Circle's own page counts. The BUIDL counts are one reading on 8 November 2026. A token can move between networks.

The table records what each firm announced, not how much it moves. The fund evidence covers one fund, BUIDL, and six of its eight networks.

Neither network leads on every measure. Ethereum holds more stablecoin dollars. Solana holds more of BlackRock's fund. Both networks host products from large firms.

Our Macro & Megacaps Systematic Portfolio may hold a crypto sleeve, a small group of up to five crypto-linked names. ETH (Ethereum's coin) and SOL (Solana's coin) are both candidates for it.

The Ethereum vs Bitcoin vs Solana comparison sets the coins side by side.

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Banks use both. J.P. Morgan Asset Management announced a tokenised money market fund on Ethereum on 15 December 2025 and put it on Solana on 22 October 2026. Visa's release of 16 December 2025 named two US banks settling in USDC on Solana. J.P. Morgan brought its JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum on 19 October 2026.

Of USDC and USDT together, Ethereum holds the most. Tron holds the most USDT. On the issuers' pages read on 7 and 8 November 2026, Ethereum held 51.2% of the two coins, Tron held 37.3%, and Solana held 3.8%. These totals count every holder, including individuals.

BUIDL is a BlackRock money market fund whose shares are recorded as tokens. It invests in cash and US government debt. It exists on eight networks, but we could read six. On those six, on 8 November 2026, Solana held 45.8% of the tokens and Ethereum held 14.6%.

A tokenised asset is a real-world asset recorded as a token on a network. A share of BlackRock's BUIDL fund is an example. Holders can send it to others on the network. The network keeps the record of who owns it. Securitize issues the BUIDL tokens. Each aims to hold a value of $1.

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended for educational purposes only. Any information or analysis in this note does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Nothing in this note is intended to be investment advice, nor should it be relied upon to make investment decisions. Any opinions, analyses, or probabilities expressed in this note are those of the author as of the note's date of publication and are subject to change without notice.