only 10% of studied Solana wallets were profitable
FOMO, a social buying and selling app, charged charges that pushed 32% of its pre-fee profitable Solana wallets beneath break-even in a historic research by blockchain knowledge supplier Bitquery.
The wallet-outcome study adopted 829,539 wallets that purchased cash via FOMO on Solana from Jan. 13 to Oct. 7, 2026. Its figures, checked Oct. 17, put 15% in revenue earlier than recorded FOMO charges and 10% afterward. Charges accounted for about 10% of mixture losses; most losses got here from the token trades themselves.
The platform is operated by FOMO Labs. Customers can observe different merchants and resolve whether or not to position their very own trades; following an account doesn’t mechanically copy its orders. The research measures wallets, not particular person folks, and covers solely Solana.
Bitquery’s comparability holds the wallets, trades and valuation technique fixed. The change is whether or not recorded USDC funds to FOMO are subtracted. The 32% determine refers to wallets that have been forward earlier than these charges, to not 32% of everybody within the research.
The 15% and 10% shares are rounded, so the dimensions of that pre-fee profitable group can’t be reconstructed exactly from the chart. The 32% crossover is Bitquery’s individually reported outcome.
For every pockets, the research mixed sale proceeds with the worth of unsold cash on Oct. 7, then deducted acquisition spending and FOMO charges. It additionally included trades those self same wallets made outdoors the app within the cash being adopted. The result’s broader than app-only gross sales and consists of marked holdings that had not been bought.
The comparability measures a payment’s accounting influence. Buying and selling habits beneath a special worth schedule stays untested: cheaper fees might accompany completely different selections of cash, timing or buying and selling frequency, with completely different outcomes.
A slim constructive result’s particularly uncovered: the recorded app fees can exceed your entire achieve. This explains how charges can change who crosses break-even whereas nonetheless accounting for a minority of the cash misplaced.
What FOMO charges value on a small commerce
The historic fees can’t be carried ahead as one common worth. Bitquery noticed a commonest payment of 95 cents via July and 10 cents from August in its pockets research. FOMO’s current fee schedule, checked Oct. 29, describes a number of Solana routes with completely different minimums.
On its lowest-fee route, the printed cost is 0.1 USDC beneath 5 USDC, 2% from 5 to 47.5 USDC, 0.95 USDC from 47.50 to 190 USDC, and 0.5% from 190 USDC upward. Different routes cost 0.5% with a 0.95-USDC minimal. FOMO says route availability modifications between trades.
For a small order, the minimal can matter greater than the headline share:
| Illustrative 10-USDC commerce | App payment | Share of commerce dimension |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest-fee Solana route | 0.2 USDC | 2% |
| Different Solana routes | 0.95 USDC | 9.5% |
The examples illustrate the printed normal schedule earlier than reductions; precise fees rely upon the route and token. The app additionally lists a 0.05% price for chosen main tokens with small-trade minimums, and advertises referral reductions. These exceptions make the transaction’s personal quote vital.
The desk reveals one commerce. FOMO fees on purchases and gross sales, so an entry cost alone doesn’t seize the price of opening and shutting a place. The exit payment and the quantity really acquired on sale additionally have an effect on whether or not a dealer breaks even.
FOMO’s terms, updated Oct. 26, say spot fees rely upon dimension, token and routing. They are saying the displayed transaction payment controls over common examples, however don’t assure that the displayed payment would be the cost utilized. The phrases additionally distinguish FOMO’s payment from third-party prices that may change between quote and settlement.
Solana’s fee documentation specifies a base payment of 5,000 lamports per signature plus an non-compulsory prioritization payment. That describes the community’s charging mechanism; it doesn’t set the industrial worth of utilizing a buying and selling app.
FOMO says it covers Solana gasoline, precedence charges and token hire, so customers don’t pay these objects individually beneath its printed description. Including them once more to the quoted app payment would overstate that specific invoice. Pool or token-contract fees and variations between anticipated and precise execution costs stay separate issues.
A distinct Bitquery audit of app fees and tips illustrates why the classes want care. It recorded $422 million collected by 25 matched apps on 711 million fee-paying swaps from Oct. 30, 2025, to Aug. 30, 2026. These are neither the dates nor the pockets inhabitants of the FOMO return research.
That audit reported a historic 1.85% median-day FOMO payment price. The end result research reported roughly 0.5% throughout traded {dollars} in its personal window. Totally different weighting and intervals imply the 2 figures reply completely different questions; neither is a blanket quote for a commerce in the present day.
The broader audit additionally separates app charges, Jito suggestions, landing-service suggestions and community fees, whereas excluding pool charges. Its totals can’t be assigned to the later FOMO pockets cohort to provide an all-in value estimate.
Decrease charges go away the token threat
Bitquery reported separate medians of $130 spent on cash, about $4 paid in FOMO charges and a $25 general loss. These describe the distributions throughout wallets and can’t be subtracted into one consultant dealer’s outcome. Recorded app charges totaled about $40 million.
The estimated greenback loss was extra delicate to unsold holdings than the share of wallets forward. Bitquery’s baseline lack of about $395 million grew to become $204 million utilizing uncapped final costs, or $490 million when unsold tokens have been valued at zero. Every estimate makes use of a special mark for holdings nonetheless owned on the finish of the research.
Complete-wallet profitability after charges stayed between 9% and 12% beneath various assumptions. The persistence of that outcome issues extra to the payment query than the precise valuation of each remaining token: most wallets have been behind even because the loss estimate modified.
Protection is bounded by lacking venues and knowledge gaps, the omission of cash already held earlier than Jan. 13, and USDC-only payment totals. The outcomes describe the recorded Solana cohort beneath these assumptions.
CryptoSlate’s latest protection of whether or not leaderboard earnings could be copied and early shopping for as Solana slots shortened examined completely different obstacles to buying and selling returns. The FOMO comparability provides a measurable app-pricing impact to that dialogue.
The break-even check is what stays after the app’s entry and exit fees. Cheaper entry can protect a slim achieve or cut back a loss.
