Catenaa, Saturday, September 26, 2026- Solana recorded the fastest enterprise crypto payouts, while TRON carried the most value and BNB Smart Chain processed the most transactions in six months of NOWPayments data.
The crypto payments company released the figures September 21 after analyzing enterprise payouts across TRON, BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Bitcoin and Solana.
Solana recorded an average payout time of 1 minute and 45 seconds, making it the fastest of the five networks measured.
Bitcoin followed at 2 minutes and 53 seconds, while TRON averaged 3 minutes and 8 seconds.
BNB Smart Chain averaged 3 minutes and 13 seconds, only five seconds slower than TRON.
Ethereum was the slowest of the five, with an average payout time of 5 minutes and 56 seconds.
The gap between Solana and Ethereum was 4 minutes and 11 seconds.
Speed, however, did not determine which networks carried the most transactions or value.
TRON accounted for 43.69% of payout value during the six-month period, the largest share among the networks measured.
BNB Smart Chain ranked second by value with 21.75%, followed by Ethereum at 18.84%.
Bitcoin accounted for 6.68% and Solana for 3.08%.
Transaction counts produced a different ranking.
BNB Smart Chain handled 48.23% of individual payouts, far ahead of TRON at 15.73%.
Ethereum accounted for 7.42% of transactions, while Solana represented 3.86% and Bitcoin 2.60%.
Those differences suggest the networks were being used for different types of payouts within NOWPayments’ customer base.
TRON carried more than twice the payout value of BNB Smart Chain while processing less than one-third as many transactions.
Based on the value and transaction shares, the average TRON payout was about 6.2 times larger than the average BNB Smart Chain payout.
That calculation is consistent with TRON being used for fewer but larger transfers in the NOWPayments dataset.
BNB Smart Chain, by contrast, appears to have been used more heavily for frequent, smaller payouts.
The five networks together represented 94.04% of payout value but only 77.84% of individual transactions.
That indicates other supported networks accounted for a relatively larger share of smaller-value transfers.
NOWPayments did not disclose the total dollar value or total number of payouts included in the study.
It also did not release a raw transaction-level dataset alongside the announcement.
The percentages should therefore be viewed as a snapshot of activity conducted through NOWPayments rather than a ranking of blockchain usage across the entire crypto industry.
The company said the results show businesses may need to choose payment rails based on the characteristics of a particular payout flow rather than a single performance metric.
A business making frequent smaller payments may place greater importance on transaction throughput and operating costs.
A company moving larger sums may instead prioritize liquidity, settlement reliability and the ability to handle higher-value transfers.
Speed could matter more for businesses where recipients expect near-immediate access to funds.
NOWPayments Commercial Director Kate Lifshits said the relevant question for businesses is whether a payout process needs to optimize value, frequency, speed or cost.
The company also highlighted an internal alternative for businesses focused primarily on avoiding blockchain fees.
NOWPayments allows transfers to ChangeNOW Pro wallets without network or service fees inside that ecosystem.
Recipients can be identified by email and confirm transfers before funds are moved, removing the need for businesses to collect wallet addresses at the start.
The company cited a public test by creator Andy Tries Coding in which a payout arrived in less than five seconds without a fee.
That route differs from sending assets over a public blockchain and therefore should not be directly compared with the five network settlement times.
The broader dataset highlights a recurring issue in business use of cryptocurrency payments.
Blockchain networks can differ sharply in transaction cost, speed, liquidity and user adoption.
Those differences become more visible when companies automate large numbers of payroll, affiliate, creator or supplier payments.
Stablecoin use has also increased the importance of network selection because the same asset can often be transferred across several blockchains.
A company sending USDT, for example, may have multiple network choices depending on which chains its payment provider and recipient support.
NOWPayments supports more than 350 cryptocurrencies and more than 30 stablecoins, alongside mass-payout and treasury services.
Its six-month data suggests there was no single network dominating every category.
Solana was fastest, BNB Smart Chain handled the most transfers and TRON moved the most money.
For businesses choosing crypto payout infrastructure, the findings suggest the preferred network may depend less on overall popularity than on what each payment flow is designed to achieve.
