What is a Tx/s?

Tx/s (transactions per second) is the performance capacity metric of a blockchain, measuring how many operations it processes per second. A high Tx/s is essential for mass adoption in gaming, payments, and institutional applications.

The absolute leaders.

The performance chart shows who is leading the pure speed race:

  • $ICP (Internet Computer): Leads with 1,072 Tx/s, consolidating its position as the highest performance platform for running software completely on-chain.

  • $SOL (Solana): closely follows with 949 Tx/s, justifying its use in high-frequency trading and gaming.

Other contenders like BNB (173 Tx/s) and Stellar (134 Tx/s) are also vital, but the gap between the leaders and the rest is enormous.

How they compete and why it matters.

The competition is not just about the number, but about the real utility that speed offers:

  • Utility of ICP: Its leadership in Tx/s is vital for its vision to replace traditional web infrastructure and host entire AI services and social networks directly on-chain. This is reflected in its dominance of total transactions (262B).

  • Utility of Solana: Its speed drives decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs ecosystems that require ultra-fast and low-cost transactions.

  • Competition mechanism: The battle is won with innovation in consensus mechanisms (like Solana's proof of history) or scalable architecture (like ICP's subnets), seeking the best combination of security, decentralization, and speed.

Tx/s and its representation in the market

The speed of the network is a key valuation factor.

  • A low Tx/s means that the network cannot handle global demand, which translates to congestion and high fees (a friction point that punishes the asset's value).

  • A high Tx/s demonstrates that the network is ready for massive institutional and retail adoption, and that's why smart capital rewards performance leaders.

In the case of $ICP its strong increase is justified because the market is valuing its proven technical capability (1,072 Tx/s) and its real adoption (leading with 262B in transactions).