Trading of Cross‑Chain Tokens on Solana: $MON and $ZEC Exceed $1B in DEX Volume

How rapid liquidity formation shapes Solana’s role in cross‑chain markets

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Solana’s role as an early trading venue for non‑native assets has accelerated. Low fees, fast finality, and mature DeFi tooling are giving teams and liquidity providers strong reasons to bridge tokens from other chains. In many cases, liquidity appears on Solana before centralized exchanges list the asset, giving traders a place to build order flow at scale.

Case Studies: $MON and $ZEC

Two recent examples capture the pattern. $MON and $ZEC both became tradable on Solana DEXs in recent weeks. $MON was bridged by Wormhole through Sunrise at the same time the token went live on Monad mainnet, letting Solana users access and trade it immediately. $ZEC trading on Solana began in mid‑October and ramped quickly as liquidity spread across multiple pools.

Volume Forms Fast

Trading Volume Based on onchain data, for $ZEC, daily DEX volume on Solana grew from roughly $400K to more than $52.9M. Over the last 45 days, cumulative DEX volume on Solana surpassed $878M, including more than $48M in the most recent 7 days.

For $MON, trading generated over $201M in volume on Solana in less than 10 days from launch, with more than $9.1M recorded in the last 24 hours.

The common denominator is speed. New listings or bridge events translate into near‑immediate market depth and turnover on Solana-consistent with the chain’s pattern in memecoins, LSTs, tokenized assets and DEX aggregators. Liquidity finds the cheapest, fastest path to execution, and for many spot pairs that path currently runs through Solana DEXs.

Participation at Scale

Traders $ZEC has seen more than 53.7K wallets execute about 2.1M swaps on Solana DEXs to date. In the last 7 days, 7.7K+ wallets made over 251K $ZEC swaps, with 50K+ trades in the last 24 hours. $MON has recorded 767K+ swaps across 16.2K+ wallets, including 66.8K+ trades in the last 24 hours.

Holders Holder growth underscores adoption. $ZEC holders on Solana now exceed 13.2K wallets. $MON surpassed 10.2K holders within 3 days, and currently sits at 9.3K+.

Where Liquidity Sits

Tvl A clearer view of liquidity distribution helps explain how efficiently these markets function on Solana. For $ZEC, more than $12.5M in liquidity is distributed across several major pools. Aquifer holds the largest share at over $5.4M, while Raydium contributes roughly $3.3M and Meteora adds about $1.2M. In total, liquidity spans nine DEXs, creating a network of routes that minimizes fragmentation and supports smoother execution for traders.

$MON’s liquidity profile shows a different kind of concentration. More than $9.5M is deployed across Solana DEXs, with Aquifer providing the majority at 57.2%. Tessera accounts for 30.5% and Meteora adds 10.9%

Why Solana Captures Early Order Flow

Several structural features explain the trend. Low fees make it economical for both retail traders and market makers to participate at smaller sizes, allowing markets to build depth more quickly. The ecosystem’s routing tooling also plays a role, as mature DEX aggregators can connect pools across multiple venues to deliver competitive execution. Finally, user behavior reinforces this dynamic. Solana’s trader base is highly responsive to new listings and bridged assets, creating the feedback loop that drives liquidity and volume formation.

The Takeaway

The rapid formation of volume and liquidity for $MON and $ZEC on Solana points to a broader shift in market structure. Teams no longer need to wait for centralized listings to reach deep liquidity. By bridging to Solana, they can tap into an existing base of users, aggregators, and market makers that heavily traffic in new assets.

If this pattern persists, Solana DEXs will remain an early venue for price discovery whenever the next wave of cross‑chain tokens arrives. For now, the signal is clear: when a new token is bridgeable, Solana is where early trading happens.

This piece is part of our Solana Data Insights series. Make sure to subscribe to Solana Data Insights for weekly onchain analysis.