Solana Surpasses Ethereum in DEX Trading Volume Due to Memecoins
Data tracked by DeFiLlama reveals that Solana has replaced Ethereum as the leading blockchain by trading volume.
In the past 7 days, trading volume on Solana's decentralized exchanges (DEX) surged nearly 67% to $21.25 billion USD, with approximately 40% of this volume coming from Orca, the top DEX in the ecosystem.
During the same period, Ethereum's DEX trading volume increased by only 3% to $19.4 billion USD, led by Uniswap with over 72% market share.
Notably, Solana's trading volume exceeded Ethereum by $1.85 billion USD, despite having only 17 DEX platforms compared to Ethereum's 46.
The total trading volume across decentralized exchanges (DEX) on the top 10 blockchains. Screenshot dated March 20, 2024, from DeFiLlama
This shift seems driven by the meme coin frenzy on Solana recently, with prominent tokens like Dogwifhat (WIF), Bonk (BONK), BOOK OF MEME (BOME), Slerf (SLERF), and others gaining traction. At the time of writing, the most popular tokens on DEX Screener in the past 24 hours were from Solana. This craze reached a peak with 2,500 meme coins launched within an hour on March 13, and stablecoin supply on Solana hitting a multi-year high of $2.80 billion USD.
The meme coin frenzy contributed to SOL surpassing $200 USD for the first time since November 2021. SOL also climbed to the fourth position in market capitalization, overtaking BNB.
Moreover, Solana's efficiency in capital utilization is higher than Ethereum and other blockchains. According to a recent report by Reflexivity Research:
In the last 1 hour, 2,500 Solana memecoins were created.
— Ram Ahluwalia CFA, Lumida (@ramahluwalia) March 13, 2024
"The ratio of DEX trading volume to total value locked (TVL) has highlighted Solana's significant efficiency over Ethereum. This ratio, a measure of capital efficiency, shows Solana recently surpassing Ethereum, indicating higher operational efficiency within its ecosystem."
Ratio of DEX trading volume to total value locked (TVL) measuring capital efficiency of 9 popular blockchains. Source: Reflexivity Research
At the time of writing, SOL token price on Solana is trading around $175 USD, marking a 60% increase since the beginning of the year. SOL is nearing its all-time high of $249 USD set in November 2021.
This article outlines Solana's recent dominance over Ethereum in DEX trading volume, fueled by the meme coin boom and its superior capital efficiency compared to other blockchains.
