Solana Surpasses Ethereum and Base in 24-Hour DEX Trading Volume

The Solana network has outperformed Ethereum and Base combined in 24-hour decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume, according to data from DefiLlama.

Daily trading volume across Solana-based DEXs neared $3.8 billion on Jan. 6, versus $1.7 billion for Ethereum and $1.2 billion for Base, Ethereum’s most popular layer-2 scaling network.

The rising trading volume reflects the Solana network’s increasing prominence in decentralized finance (DeFi) and its emergence as a serious challenger to Ethereum.

From a price perspective, Solana ( SOLUSD ) has outperformed Ether ( ETHUSD ) by approximately eight times since 2023, according to data from TradingView.

Solana’s total value locked (TVL) is also outpacing Ethereum’s. In 2024, Solana’s TVL rose roughly five times, from around $1.4 billion to upward of $9.5 billion, according to DefiLlama.

“Retail traders increasingly enter the crypto market through Solana [as] speculation intensifies around Solana-based memecoins and AI agent tokens,” Grayscale Research said in December.

Rising trading volumes

In 2024, 24-hour trading volumes on Raydium, Solana’s leading DEX, increased by more than 10 times, from around $180 million in January to more than $3 billion on Dec. 31, according to DefiLlama.

In November, Raydium beat Uniswap, Ethereum’s leading DEX, in monthly trading volumes by roughly 30%, or approximately $30 billion, according to a December report by Messari Research.

That figure reversed in December, with Uniswap’s volume reaching $92 billion compared to roughly $61 billion for Raydium, according to DefiLlama.

Raydium’s “success is largely attributed to its dominance within the Solana ecosystem,” the Messari report said, adding that the DEX consistently captures over 60% of daily DEX volume on the layer-1 blockchain network.

In particular, “[m]emecoin trading has become a substantial driver of Raydium’s volume, with memecoins accounting for an all-time high of 65% of Raydium’s monthly volume in November,” the report added.

Fueled by venture capital funding and political speculation, memecoins now command approximately $130 billion in market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.

In November, Solana’s top memecoin platform, Pump.fun, was the eighth-highest-earning blockchain protocol, ranking just below giants such as Uniswap and Circle, the issuer of USD Coin ( USDCUSD ).

In the past 30 days, Pump.fun generated nearly $250 million in trading volume, according to data from DefiLlama.

After bootstrapping sufficient liquidity, memecoins minted on Pump.fun are typically traded on Raydium.