Solana DEX volumes still rival Ethereum’s despite memecoin meltdown: VanEck

Solana’s decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes still rival those of the entire Ethereum ecosystem despite a steep dropoff in memecoin trading activity, asset manager VanEck said. 

In February, Solana’s share of total onchain DEX volume topped 43%, briefly surpassing the combined DEX volume of Ethereum and its layer-2 scaling networks, according to a March 5 report by VanEck. 

They declined to around 30% in March, slightly below the Ethereum ecosystem’s roughly 40% share, the data shows. 

“Despite the Memecoin Meltdown, Solana DEX volumes are still holding their own — roughly matching the entire ETH ecosystem (L1 + L2s),” Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of research, said in a post on the X platform. 

Related: Solana shorts spike amid memecoin scandals

Memecoin tumult

Activity on the Solana network declined in February after a series of memecoin-related scandals soured sentiment among retail traders. 

‘[T]he impact was severe, with stablecoin transfers — the backbone of on-chain trading — plummeting (-80%) from January levels,” VanEck said. 

On Feb. 14, Libra, a memecoin seemingly endorsed by Argentine President Javier Milei, erased some $4.4 billion in market capitalization within hours of launching.

Since January, traders have lost approximately $2 billion across 800,000 wallets on Official Trump (TRUMP), US President Donald Trump’s official memecoin.

Memecoin trading, largely tied to the popular Pump.fun platform, comprises roughly 80% of the Solana blockchain network’s revenues, according to the report.

New token launches on Pump.fun are down more than 80% since January. Memecoins bootstrap liquidity on Pump.fun before graduating to Raydium, Solana’s most popular DEX.

As of March 6, Raydium has more than $1.3 billion in total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama.

“Solana has been the standout performer in the current crypto market cycle, with its token price rising (+191%), on-chain revenues (excluding MEV) surging (+700%), and stablecoin supply increasing (+291%) in 2024,” VanEck said. 

“One of the biggest drivers of Solana’s growth has been memecoin trading,” VanEck added, noting that Pump.fun generated more than $577 million in fees in just over a year. 

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