Solana surpasses Ethereum DEX volume reaching 55 billion
Solana has achieved a major milestone by surpassing Ethereum in monthly decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume for the first time in the history of cryptocurrency.
In July, Solana’s (SOL) DEX volume reached $55.8 billion, surpassing the on-chain trading activity on Ethereum (ETH) between July 1 and July 31, according to DefiLlama. Ethereum, known as the largest chain for decentralized finance, recorded $53.8 billion in trading volume during the same period. Layer-2 networks like Arbitrum and Base, as well as the L1 blockchain Binance Smart Chain, followed Solana and Ethereum in terms of trading volume.
The driving factors behind Solana’s impressive volume are diverse. Last year, meme coins gained popularity on Solana’s network, with projects like Dogwifhat (WIF) and Bonk (BONK) making waves in on-chain markets. Speculative investors saw substantial gains by investing in these tokens, some of which had billion-dollar market caps as of August 1.
Additionally, celebrities have ventured into Solana, launching new tokens quickly using platforms like Pump.fun and Moonshot. While many of these tokens did not succeed, the involvement of public figures added momentum to the meme coin trend.
On the other hand, Ethereum continues to be the preferred application layer for developing decentralized applications. Major dapps like Aave and Uniswap originated on Ethereum and have contributed to its enduring popularity.
Ethereum saw a resurgence of interest following a technological upgrade that lowered fees significantly, making trading and swapping on the network more affordable. This upgrade, known as Dencun, was followed by institutional demand for ETH on Wall Street. Companies like BlackRock, Bitwise, Fidelity, and Grayscale received approval from the SEC to list spot ETH exchange-traded fund shares.
Although spot Ethereum ETFs have only been trading for a few days, Grayscale outflows have impacted the new offering. There is ongoing debate about the implications of ETFs on the future price of Ether, with some suggesting that ETF buying could boost on-chain staking yields, while others are more skeptical about its overall impact on the industry.
Despite these developments, Ethereum remains a dominant force in the DeFi market, as evidenced by data from Glassnode showing a significant increase in daily active addresses on Ethereum and its L2s since the beginning of the year.
