Decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium has outpaced Uniswap in monthly trading volume for the second month in a row, according to a December 10 Messari report.
Last November, Solana’s own Raydium outpaced Uniswap, the most popular DEX in general, by about 30%, or about $30 billion, in monthly trading volume, according to the report.
This follows a narrow win in October in which Raydium outperformed Uniswap by about 10%, according to a November 17 post on the
Raydium’s “success is primarily due to its dominance within the Solana ecosystem,” the Messari report said, adding that the DEX continues to capture more than 60% of daily DEX volume from layer-1 blockchain networks.
In particular, “(m)emecoin trading has become a substantial driver of Raydium trading volume, with memecoin reaching an all-time high of 65% of Raydium monthly volume in November,” the report added.
source: Messer
Memecoin craze
Fueled by venture capital funding and political speculation, memecoins now command a market capitalization of about $130 billion, according to CoinGecko.
In 2024, Solana emerged as a hub for memecoin trading, driven by the soaring popularity of Pump.fun, a platform for memecoin issuance and bootstrapping trading liquidity.
Many Pump.fun memecoins end up being traded on Raydium.
According to DefiLlama, Pump.fun is the fifth highest-grossing Web3 protocol by revenue, with over $100 million in fee income in the last 30 days.
Pump.fun’s revenue is just below that of giants like Circle, USD Coin (USDC) issuer, and Solana network.
In October, the Pump.fun team laid out plans for future token launches and a newly upgraded trading terminal called “Pump Advance.”
Source: Messari
According to DefiLlama, Raydium only operates on Solana, while Uniswap maintains an extensive presence in around 18 blockchain networks.
Solana’s Total Value Locked (TVL) will increase approximately 5x in 2024. According to DefiLlama, it still lags far behind the leader, Ethereum, which accounts for over $70 billion in TVL.
“Solana’s growth is due in part to its technological advantages, including high throughput and low transaction costs, which have attracted users seeking a faster, more cost-effective DeFi experience,” the Messari report said.
On October 10, Uniswap launched Unichain, its own application-specific layer 2 blockchain network.
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