- Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has hit a new milestone, with daily trading volumes on its decentralized exchanges (DEXs) surpassing $5 billion for three consecutive days.
- Solana is rapidly catching up with Ethereum in terms of real economic value (REV) and total application revenue (TAR), driven by transaction fees and miner extractable value (MEV) tips.
- Beyond DeFi, Solana’s DePIN (decentralized pinning) sector has grown substantially, with projects like Hivemapper and Helium demonstrating the impact of crowdsourcing infrastructure costs and using on-chain settlement.
Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is seeing significant growth, with trading volumes on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) surpassing $5 billion for multiple consecutive days. This milestone highlights Solana’s rapid rise and its potential to challenge Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi.
The Surge in Solana Trading Volume
Solana DEXs reached a total trading volume of around $16 billion during the week of November 10-16. Raydium, a leading DEX on Solana, contributed over 62% of the volume. Orca accounted for 22.2% of the volume, while market makers Lifinity and Phoenix captured 6.96% and 4.92% respectively.
What’s Fueling Solana’s Growth?
A recent report by Syncracy Capital showed Solana rapidly gaining market share and revenue compared to Ethereum in 2024. Solana’s real economic value (REV) reached 11.1% of Ethereum’s in October, driven by fees and MEV tips.
Total application revenue (TAR), another key metric, hit 10.9% of Ethereum’s TAR. This reflects the growing fees generated by Solana applications. As the report stated, “Solana is eating market share from Ethereum.”
Solana’s financial sector, centered around meme coin trading, has seen substantial on-chain activity. Speculative trading has echoed Ethereum’s 2020 DeFi boom as users seek alternatives to high-value tokens. The meme coin launcher Pumpfun became the fastest-growing app ever, reaching $100 million revenue in 217 days. Its current annual revenue run rate is $348 million.
source: syncracy
Beyond DeFi – The Growth of Solana DePIN
Beyond DeFi, Solana’s DePIN sector has expanded significantly. By crowdsourcing infrastructure costs and using on-chain settlement, DePIN creates a more efficient network. Major projects like Hivemapper and Helium demonstrate DePIN’s impact.
Conclusion
The data shows Solana’s ecosystem growing rapidly in both economic value and user activity. With strengths in DeFi and DePIN, Solana appears poised to challenge Ethereum going forward. Its low fees and high scalability make it attractive for developers and traders alike. While still early stages, Solana seems to have solidified itself as a leading smart contract platform.
