Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) have emerged as cornerstone platforms within blockchain ecosystems, and the Solana ecosystem exemplifies the intense competition among these platforms.
The rapid expansion of Solana-based DEXs, especially noticeable from the last quarter of 2024 into the first quarter of 2025, has been fueled by a confluence of factors, including the crypto bull run and the memecoin supercycle.
Explosive Growth: A Historical Overview
Beginning in Q4 2024, trading volumes on Solana DEXs skyrocketed. Based on Flipside data October 2024 alone saw a staggering $89 billion in trading, representing a 142% increase compared to the previous month. This remarkable growth continued through the remainder of Q4, culminating in an unprecedented quarterly volume of $522.8 billion—over three times the figure recorded in Q3 2024.
January kicked off with $379 billion in volume, and by February, that figure soared past $571 billion—already surpassing Q4 2024 totals. By the end of the quarter, Solana DEXs recorded $675 billion in total volume, marking a 29% increase from the previous quarter and a staggering 465% jump year-over-year compared to Q1 2024.
Record-Breaking Volumes: A Six-Month Surge
Cumulatively, from January 2024 through March 2025, trading volumes on Solana DEXs surpassed $1.68 trillion. Remarkably, over 71.2% of this total—approximately $1.19 trillion—occurred within just six months, highlighting the rapid expansion and intense market activity during this period.
Dominance of Raydium and Emerging Competitors
Among the numerous active DEX platforms on Solana, Raydium consistently maintained its dominance. Known for its extensive liquidity pools that cater to newly launched tokens, Raydium facilitated trades worth over $333 billion in Q1 2025 alone, capturing nearly half (49.2%) of the total market share. This represented a 10% growth compared to Q4 2024, reinforcing its position as the leading DEX in the ecosystem.
Rising Competition: Meteora, SolFi, and ZeroFi
The Solana ecosystem also saw significant shifts with the emergence and rapid growth of competitors such as Meteora, SolFi, and ZeroFi. Meteora notably secured second place, achieving over $97 billion in trading volume (14.4% market share), surpassing Orca.
SolFi, a private Automated Market Maker (AMM), also demonstrated strong performance, recording volumes exceeding $61 billion, which surpassed the combined volumes of established platforms Pump.fun and Lifinity.
ZeroFi, a private AMM with no public frontend, may be less well-known than mainstream DEXs, but it still achieved over $29.6 billion in trading volume — outperforming Pump.fun by an impressive 37%.
Comparative Volume Growth: DEX Performance Insights
Q1 2025 was marked by varying performances across different DEX platforms. Meteora experienced the highest growth, a remarkable 189.9% increase from Q4 2024 — largely driven by the launch of memecoins like $TRUMP, $Melania, and $LIBRA. Following closely, SolFi achieved a substantial growth of 116%.
Other platforms, such as Saber and Stepn Swap, also saw significant volume increases of 23.3% and 12%, respectively. Raydium maintained a steady growth rate, posting a 10.5% increase quarter-over-quarter.
Conversely, some platforms faced notable declines, particularly Bonkswap and Phoenix, which recorded drops of 61.4% and 47.3%, respectively. Despite these declines, Phoenix still managed a substantial volume of over $8.6 billion in Q1 2025.
Trading Pair Dynamics: The Impact of Memecoins and Stablecoins
Memecoins played a crucial role in propelling trading activity within Solana’s ecosystem. In Q4 2024, memecoins launched on Pump.fun accounted for over 34.5% of the total trading volumes, while those on platforms like Moonshot and others contributed another substantial 22.9%.
Combined, memecoins represented 54.1% of total trading volumes in Q1 2025, albeit showing a slight decrease of 3.34% compared to the previous quarter.
Shifting Preferences: Memecoin and Stablecoin Trading Dynamics
Interestingly, within this memecoin category, Pump.fun’s share saw a notable decrease of over 9% to 25.3%, while other platforms collectively increased their share by 5.85% to reach over 28.7%.
SOL-stablecoin pairs also remained a critical element of trading activities, dominating volume distributions with a share of over 31.8% in Q1 2025, driven by user preferences for pairing memecoins with SOL.
Emerging Trends: AI Tokens and Stablecoin Swaps
Additionally, AI token trades witnessed notable fluctuations. While their share significantly increased in late 2024, Q1 2025 saw a minor reduction of 1.44%, settling at 3.82%. Conversely, stablecoin swaps grew significantly, rising from 1.66% in Q4 2024 to over 2.45% in Q1 2025.
Spotlight on Raydium’s Trading Pairs
Analyzing Raydium specifically, stablecoin trading pairs, particularly SOL-USDC, dominated, registering a volume exceeding $28 billion in Q1 2025. Following these were SOL-memecoin pairs, notably SOL-TRUMP with over $10.1 billion and SOL-Fartcoin with a substantial $3.3 billion in trading volume, illustrating the sustained popularity of memecoins among traders.
Conclusion
The growth of trading volumes on Solana's decentralized exchanges highlights the platform's dynamic ecosystem. Raydium led Q1 2025 with volumes over $333 billion, capturing 49.2% market share. Meteora and SolFi rapidly emerged, securing $97 billion (14.4%) and $61 billion (over 9%) respectively. Popular trading pairs included SOL-USDC ($28 billion) and SOL-TRUMP ($10.1 billion), reflecting evolving market preferences.
Stay tuned for further insights into how these platforms evolve and shape the future of DeFi trading on Solana.
This piece is part of our Solana Data Insights series. Make sure to subscribe to Solana Data Insights for weekly onchain analysis.
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