Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) is seeing a resurgence amidst a broader market rally.
According to data compiled by DeFiLlama, Solana’s decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have hit a milestone, with daily trading volumes surpassing $5 billion for three consecutive days. This marks the first time such a feat has been achieved.
During the week of November 10-16, Solana DEXs reached a total trading volume of approximately $16 billion. Raydium, a leading DEX on Solana, played a crucial role in this surge, contributing over 62% of the total trading volume. Next up was another popular exchange Orca, which accounted for 22.2% of the trading volume followed by market makers Lifinity and Phoenix with each capturing 6.96% and 4.92% of the volume, respectively.
What’s Fueling Solana?
Syncracy Capital’s recent report highlighted Solana’s rapid catch-up with Ethereum, with 2024 data showing an increase in Solana’s market share revenue. The network’s real economic value (REV) surged to 111% of Ethereum’s in October, an increase from 1% last year, driven by transaction fees and MEV tips.
Total application revenue (TAR), another key metric, also showed strong performance, reaching 109% of Ethereum’s TAR, reflecting the growing fees generated by applications on Solana’s network.
“Solana is eating market share from Ethereum. This is no longer conjecture, it is abundantly evident in the data. As cyclical tailwinds strengthened over the past twelve months, Solana became the industry’s home for retail financial activity.”
Solana’s financial sector has driven a surge in on-chain activity, with meme coin trading at its core as users seek alternatives to traditional venture-backed assets and high-valued tokens. This speculative wave echoed Ethereum’s DeFi boom in 2020, the report added.
Syncracy Capital even went on to say that is an ideal time for developers to build on Solana. Pump.fun, for one, became the fastest-growing app in crypto history, reaching $100 million in revenue in just 217 days. Currently, the meme coin launcher’s annual revenue run rate stands at $348 million, making it the top revenue-generating app in the industry.
DePIN on Solana
Beyond DeFi, Solana’s DePIN sector has grown substantially by crowdsourcing infrastructure costs and using on-chain settlement to create a more scalable and efficient network.
Major DePIN projects such as Hivemapper, which has mapped 28% of global roads at minimal cost, and Helium, with a 20,000-device network aiding US carriers, demonstrate the sector’s impact.
