SPL vs ERC20: Which Token Standard Should You Choose?

August 3, 2026 · 5 min read

Solana's SPL token standard and Ethereum's ERC20 both do the same core job — represent a fungible asset on a blockchain — but the experience of launching and running one differs enough that the choice matters. Here's how they actually compare, without the tribalism.

Transaction fees

This is usually the deciding factor for new projects. Creating and transacting an SPL token on Solana costs a small fraction of a dollar in network fees, plus TokenAnvil's flat creation fee in SOL. ERC20 tokens on Ethereum mainnet can cost significantly more in gas, especially during network congestion — which is why many new projects launch on Base or BNB Chain first, both of which use the same ERC20 standard as Ethereum but with dramatically lower fees.

Speed

Solana confirms transactions in under a second. Ethereum mainnet confirmations take roughly 12-15 seconds per block, with most wallets waiting for multiple confirmations. Base and BNB Chain sit in between. For a token launch itself this rarely matters, but it affects the day-to-day experience of your holders trading and interacting with your token afterward.

Ecosystem and liquidity venues

Solana's dominant venues are Raydium, Orca, and pump.fun-style launch platforms, with Jupiter as the standard aggregator. Ethereum and its EVM-compatible chains (BNB Chain, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum) share a much larger and more mature DeFi ecosystem — Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and dozens of other DEXs, plus far more established bridging and wallet infrastructure. If your project needs multi-chain integrations or deep DeFi composability, EVM chains currently have the edge.

Token authorities and standards

Solana's SPL Token program has three revocable authorities — mint, freeze, and update — that can be permanently renounced in a single transaction, which is why "revoke authorities" has become such a standard trust signal in the Solana memecoin ecosystem. Solana also has a newer standard, Token-2022 (Token Extensions), which supports built-in features like transfer fees and confidential transfers that would otherwise require custom Solidity code on EVM chains.

ERC20 has no single "revoke everything" instruction — trust signals on EVM chains usually come from renouncing contract ownership (via OpenZeppelin's Ownable pattern) or verifying the source code on Etherscan/BscScan so anyone can audit the mint function themselves.

Which should you choose?

• Choose Solana if you're launching a community-driven or memecoin-style project, want the lowest possible fees, and plan to rely on venues like Raydium or pump.fun-style launch flows.
• Choose Ethereum or Base if you need deep DeFi composability, plan to integrate with established protocols, or want the broadest wallet and institutional support.
• Choose BNB Chain if you want EVM compatibility with fees closer to Solana's.

The good news: you don't have to choose blind. TokenAnvil supports Solana, Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Base from the same interface, so you can compare the actual deployment cost on each chain before committing.