According to data from DefiLlama, the Solana network has more 24-hour decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume than Ethereum and Base combined.
According to DefiLlama, as of January 6, daily trading volume for Solana-based DEXes was close to $3.8 billion, compared to $1.7 billion for Base, Ethereum’s most popular layer 2 scaling network, and $1.2 billion for Base. .
The increase in trading volume reflects the Solana Network’s growing prominence in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space and its emergence as a serious challenger to Ethereum.
From a price perspective, Solana (SOL) has outperformed Ether (ETH) by about 8 times since 2023, according to data from TradingView.
Solana’s total value locked (TVL) is also ahead of Ethereum. According to DefiLlama, Solana’s TVL in 2024 will increase approximately five-fold, from approximately $1.4 billion to $9.5 billion.
“Retail traders are increasingly entering the cryptocurrency market through Solana as speculation about Solana-based memecoins and AI agent tokens intensifies,” Grayscale Research said in December.
source: Dipilama
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Increased trading volume
According to DefiLlama, in 2024, 24-hour trading volume on Solana’s main DEX, Raydium, has increased more than tenfold, from approximately $180 million in January to over $3 billion on December 31.
In November, Raydium outpaced Ethereum’s leading DEX, Uniswap, by about 30%, or about $30 billion, in monthly trading volume, according to a December report from Messari Research.
In December, these numbers reversed, with Uniswap’s trading volume reaching $92 billion and Raydium’s trading volume reaching around $61 billion, according to DefiLlama.
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: Dipilama
Fueled by venture capital funding and political speculation, memecoins now command a market capitalization of about $130 billion, according to CoinGecko.
In November, Solana’s top memecoin platform, Pump.fun, was the eighth highest-grossing blockchain protocol, just below giants such as USD Coin (USDC) issuer Uniswap and Circle.
Over the past 30 days, Pump.fun has generated nearly $250 million in trading volume, according to data from DefiLlama.
After securing sufficient liquidity, memecoins issued by Pump.fun are generally traded on Raydium.
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