© 2026 Della Group. All Rights Reserved.
Okay, so you're jumping into Solana asset dashboards? First hack I always tell friends: paste your wallet address into Step Finance right away. Why? It pulls every damn token, NFT, and DeFi position you got in one screen. No hunting around. I usually do this on my phone while sipping coffee-bam, instant overview of what's cooking in my wallet.
The thing is, Solana moves fast. Thousands of transactions per second. Without a dashboard, you're blind. Step Finance? It's like your personal mission control. Shows SOL balance, token values in USD, even unrealized P&L across farms and pools. Pretty much free, too-just connect Phantom or whatever wallet you're rocking.
Look, I've tried 'em all. Step's the most popular for a reason. It aggregates your portfolio-wallets, DeFi spots, NFTs-all in one spot. In my experience, it's killer for spotting dust tokens you forgot about. Why does this matter? Dust adds up, man. Sell 'em off, reclaim that rent-Solana charges like 0.000005 SOL per account to stay alive.
But here's the catch. It doesn't decode every weird program yet. New meme coin launch? Might show raw balance without the hype. That's where mixing in Dune comes in later.
Stuck? If it glitches on mobile, refresh. Happened to me once-network hiccup. Solana's speedy, but RPCs lag sometimes.
Now, DeFi on Solana? Wild west. You've got liquidity pools on Orca, farms on Kamino, borrows on Marginfi. Step Finance shines here-lists 'em all with APYs updated live. But honestly, I cross check with solana.fm for transaction deep dives. It's a block explorer on steroids.
Picture this: You're in a Raydium pool. Dashboard shows your LP tokens, impermanent loss calc, even harvestable rewards. Fees? Raydium takes 0.25% on swaps, you get a cut as LP. Question is, when to pull out? Watch the volume chart-if it dips below $1M daily, I'm out.
In my experience, ignoring TVL is suicide. Step shows it per protocol. Low TVL? Rug risk high.
Step's great for your assets. But ultimate? Build on Dune. It's free SQL queries on Solana's raw data. Track DEX volumes, NFT flips, whale moves. I built one for Orca trades-took 10 minutes.
Why Dune? Solana accounts hold everything: tokens in 10KB chunks, programs up to 10MB. Transactions pack instructions-like "swap 5 USDC for JUP, fee 0.000005 SOL." Dune decodes it into tables: solana.transactions for fees/errors, dex.trades for volumes.
Potential issue: Queries slow on huge datasets. Fix? Filter by block_time first, like last 7 days. Saved my ass during a pump.
Sign up at dune.com-Google login, done. Head to query editor.
SELECT DATE(blocktime) as date, SUM(amountusd) as volume
FROM solana.dex.trades
WHERE project = 'raydium' AND block_time > now() - INTERVAL '30' DAY
GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY date DESC;Final touch: Fork public ones. Search "Solana DEX"-bam, templates. Modify, learn. But credit creators, don't plagiarize.
Solana has explorers like Solscan, Solana.fm, Explorer.solana.com. Use 'em to drill into txs. Paste sig-see accounts touched, fees (usually <0.001 SOL), errors.
I usually start with Solana.fm. Cleaner UI. Shows inner instructions-crucial for CPIs (cross program calls). Like, Raydium swap calls Token Program to transfer.
Common snag: Failed txs say "error" but no why. Check logs: "Insufficient funds" or "Invalid account." Fix? Top up SOL, retry.
| Explorer | Best For | Speed | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solscan | NFTs, tokens | Fast | Yes |
| Solana.fm | DeFi tx breakdowns | Lightning | Yes |
| Explorer.solana | Raw blocks/slots | Okay | Yes |
Pro move: Label whales. Track repeat addresses-bots or insiders?
Want ultimate? Cluster wallets. Tools like Step show yours, but for others? Dune query balances: join dex.trades with prices.usd. See who holds >$500 in hot tokens.
In my experience, filter active traders: DEX trade in last 14 days. Add labels-retail vs. bots by tx patterns. Temporal heatmaps? Spot bursts, like liquidity seeds before arb.
Here's a quick Dune hack for wallet activity:
SELECT signer, COUNT(*) as txs, SUM(fee)/1e9 as fees_sol
FROM solana.transactions
WHERE block_time > now() - INTERVAL '7' DAY
GROUP BY signer HAVING COUNT(*) > 50
ORDER BY txs DESC LIMIT 20;
Run it. Top 20 busy wallets. Paste into Step-watch their portfolios mirror yours?
Okay, not beginner, but hear me out. RisingWave streams live blocks via RPC websockets. Build materialized views for 5-sec tx counts. Dashboard shows SOL transfers: 12k in 2 mins? Network's lit.
Steps rough:
Why bother? Spot pumps live. Fees spike? Congestion. But setup's heavy-stick to Dune unless you're building apps.
Solana NFTs? Step lists 'em with floor prices. But Dune's magic: query nft.trades for flips. Volume > $100k daily? Hype incoming.
Token accounts: One per mint per wallet. Owned by Token Program. Check balances table-daily latest. I usually zap empty ones to save rent.
Issue: PDAs confuse newbies. They're program derived, no private. Like Raydium pools from mint seeds. Explorers show owner program.
Tx fee: ~0.000005 SOL base, scales with sigs/instructions. Prioritization fees extra-0.001 SOL bumps you up during congestion.
Big pitfall: Failed txs burn fee. Test on devnet first. Tools like Solana Playground-free simulator.
Sound familiar? Lost 0.01 SOL to bad swap args? Validate instructions pre send.
Ultimate setup? Step for portfolio. Dune for market data. Explorer for tx forensics. I dashboard in Dune with Step embed-full picture.
Customize wild: Add markdown notes like "JUP pump-buy dip?" Widgets for counters: total SOL held, txs today.
One more: Helius for RPC if free tiers choke. Their decoded data feeds Dune like queries without SQL grind.
Took me weeks to learn. Now? Dashboards update in seconds.
"Query timeout"? Shrink date range. "No data"? Wrong table-dex.trades not for NFTs.
Wallet not loading? Revoke app perms in Phantom settings. Rare, but clears cache.
That's your toolkit. Play with it daily-Solana changes fast. Hit snags? Tweak, query, repeat. You'll own it soon.
© 2026 Della Group. All Rights Reserved.