Solana Is Top Blockchain In Q1 By DEX Volume, Can It Keep Up?

The Solana blockchain has been ranked as the leading blockchain in Q1 in terms of DEX revenue according to Coingecko.

The network has been able to maintain a strong DeFi position despite challenging market conditions in Q1 2025.

According to the analysis, Solana managed to secure the lead against rival networks by accounting for 39.6% of all the DEX volume in Q1.

Even more impressive was that Solana accounted for 52% of DEX trading volume in January.

Solana performance in Q1 confirmed that the network was still holding on to DeFi dominance.

The network previously demonstrated strength in 2024, largely courtesy of meme coins.

Can Solana Maintain Dominance if Meme Coins Lose Popularity?

Most of the volumes observed in the Solana ecosystem especially in 2024 were largely driven by memecoin-related activity.

But, now that the market has adopted a more serious tone especially after the latest tariffs-related events, investors are predicting a shift in favor utility.

If that shift happens, then Solana may not benefit from meme coins as much as it did.

Such an outcome may have already played out over the last few weeks. For example, the Solana network lost its crown for DEX volume dominance in February after yielding to Ethereum.

Solana DEX volume peaked right after mid-January with daily DEX volume surging as high as $35.89 billion on 18 January.

Daily DEX volume on the network dropped slightly below $1 billion by mid-March.

Solana DEX volume demonstrated a bit of recovery in the last 2 weeks with daily volume surging back above $2.5 billion.

This means it was right within the same range as Ethereum daily DEX volume and perhaps slightly higher.

This suggests that the dominance gap has narrowed between the two titans of the blockchain world.

It may also confirm that meme coins have lately not been as much of a cash cow for Solana as much as they were a few months ago.

This was also demonstrated by the massive dip in chain revenue over the last 3 months.

Stablecoin Marketcap Continues to Grow

Solana’s daily chain revenues peaked at $17.77 million on 20 January. They were down to less than $470,000 by mid-March and have been hovering close to this range for some time.

Despite the declining chain revenues, Solana stablecoin marketcap continues to tick higher. Its stablecoin liquidity clocked in at $12.65 billion as of 17 April.

The declining appetite for risk in the crypto segment may explain why meme coins have been losing their appeal.

This outcome highlighted a massive impact on Solana especially in terms of revenue and utility.

It remained unclear whether meme coin appeal will make a comeback once the market stabilizes.

For now, Solana network performance heavily relies on other key growth areas including stablecoins.

SOL Price Recap

While Solana network performance appears to have taken massive hit from recent economic turmoil, its native coin SOL was heavily impacted.

It almost surged above $300 while sailing the bullish waves earlier this year but has since been slapped down.

To the extent that it briefly lost its crucial $100 support albeit briefly earlier this month.

The pause on tariff wars appear to have favored SOL because it pulled off a 42% recovery to its $134.7 press time price tag.

That recovery made SOL the biggest gainer out of the top 10 coins in the last 2 weeks.

SOL’s recovery confirmed that it was still able to command strong demand after its heavy discount in the last 3 months.

This may offer insights into what to expect from the cryptocurrency if the market continues on a recovery path.