Solana infrastructure tested by unexpected Donald Trump memecoin traffic

The Solana blockchain faced severe congestion over the weekend as interest in Donald Trump and Melania Trump-themed memecoins surged.

This unexpected spike overwhelmed the network, causing delays and failed transactions across various platforms.

Solana congestion

Prominent Solana-based services, including Phantom, Jito, and Jupiter, alongside centralized exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance, struggled to cope with the heightened demand.

On Jan. 19, Phantom, a leading wallet provider on Solana, confirmed the strain on its infrastructure. The platform reported handling over 8 million requests per minute, which exceeded its capacity and led to transaction failures.

Phantom assured users that efforts were underway to stabilize operations while encouraging patience during the recovery process.

In a separate update, the platform highlighted significant user engagement, with over $1.25 billion in trading volume and 10 million transactions completed during the past day.

Similarly, Jito, a liquid staking solution provider on the blockchain network, said its “Block Engine API [experienced] severe degradation due to unprecedented load levels.”

The team added:

“While the Solana network continues to operate and process blocks, transaction submission through our service remains impacted.”

Moreover, centralized exchanges were not immune to the impact. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong highlighted the strain on their Solana infrastructure, noting that the team was working to scale operations to handle the unexpected demand.

Armstrong said:

“Team is working hard on scaling our Solana infra now – lots of Solana activity last few days, we were not anticipating this level of surge.”

Binance has also had issues with USDC withdrawals on Solana.

Root causes

Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius Labs, provided insights into the technical difficulties faced by the Solana network.

He noted that while block production remained active, incomplete transactions were common due to a mix of factors:

• High volatility in memecoin prices led to low slippage settings, increasing the likelihood of transaction failures.
• The overuse of Compute Units (CUs) by some applications resulted in inefficient block packing and elevated transaction fees.
• Inconsistencies in fee APIs created chaotic auction environments, compounding the problem.
• Software bugs in the Agave client left a significant portion of its capacity unused, further straining the system.

Mumtaz described the situation as a critical learning experience, emphasizing the importance of addressing bottlenecks and improving scalability for future demand surges.

He highlighted Solana’s progress, noting that similar demand spikes in earlier years could have entirely halted block production.

Mumtaz added:

“A large number of these problems are preventable, but sometimes require massive demand events like this weekend to force teams to actually integrate (fee APIs are a big example of this).”

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