The network withstood one of the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on record without disrupting its operation

Solana suffered the fourth largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack ever recorded, according to the Pipe Network team, a decentralized content delivery network built on Solana. The attack also affected the Sui network.

A DDoS attack typically affects digital infrastructure such as servers, telecommunications networks, and online services by limiting their capacity to process legitimate requests. The goal is to exhaust available resources and hinder or prevent their normal operation.

The attack in Solana reached a peak of nearly 6 Tbps (terabits per second). This peak indicates that the volume of malicious traffic reached almost six terabits of data per second.

To put it in perspective, a terabit is equivalent to one trillion bits transmitted every second. In practical terms, this is enough information to saturate the infrastructure of most traditional internet services.

A traffic volume of this level usually results in service interruptions or severe performance degradation in distributed systems.

Solana's data shows that it handled the attack well.

The timing of the DDoS attack in Solana is unclear

Sources within the Solana ecosystem disagree on when the DDoS attack occurred.

According to Solana Floor, an analytics site specializing in the Solana ecosystem, and the CEO of Helius Labs, known on X as “mert,” the attack took place “last week,” although they did not specify the dates.

Network measurements showed no visible operational impacts, according to Solana Floor.

For example, the chain maintained sub-second transaction confirmations and stable slot latency (the time it takes the network to produce new blocks), a key indicator for assessing operational continuity.

Meanwhile, Pipe Network confirmed on December 16 that the attack on the network is still ongoing.

At the time of this writing, metrics such as block processing time (four seconds) and transactions per second (TPS) demonstrate typical volume on Solana (3,000 to 4,000 TPS).

Also, the network's health status is currently at 98%, indicating that the network is operating very close to its optimal conditions.

In short, these metrics suggest that if Solana were indeed under a DDoS attack right now, as suggested by Pipe Network, the network would withstand it without disrupting its proper functioning.

Finally, the Sui network was also attacked with a DDoS. Unlike Solana, Sui experienced delays in block production and periods of degraded performance, according to Solana Floor.

This implies that the network had difficulty processing transactions normally during the attack.