Ethereum’s Throne on Shaky Ground? Another Altcoin Overtakes ETH in DEX Volume

In a milestone development for Solana’s decentralized exchange (DEX) ecosystem, the network’s weekly trading volume has hit a record high of 168% of Ethereum’s mainnet DEX volume.

This notable increase is a significant shift from earlier in the year, when Solana’s DEX volume represented just 48.85% of Ethereum’s. The metric, calculated by dividing Solana’s weekly DEX volume by Ethereum’s, reveals a dramatic increase in Solana’s relative trading activity.

Key to Solana’s rise is Raydium, the network’s largest DEX, which generated $22.3 billion in volume in October alone. For comparison, Ethereum’s leading DEX, Uniswap, recorded $38 billion in volume. Over the course of the year, Raydium has significantly increased its market share from 7.6% in January to 18.4% in October, while Uniswap has maintained its position as the dominant force in Ethereum’s DEX ecosystem.

Solana’s rise has also been attributed to the popularity of “pump.fun” tokens, a category that encourages high-frequency trading of new tokens on the platform. This contrasts with ETH, where trading on Uniswap is typically focused on established token pairs. The contrasting trading behaviors on each network highlight a different user focus: Solana’s DEX activity is geared toward newer, highly volatile tokens, while Ethereum caters more to stable, established pairs.

While it is notable that Solana’s DEX volume exceeds ETH’s mainnet volume, Ethereum’s overall DEX volume extends beyond mainnet and into Layer 2 solutions.

*This is not investment advice.