On January 28, the OKX trading platform released its State of DEX 2025 report, which offered an analysis of the decentralized exchange (DEX) market last year. The report extensively discussed the rise of Solana against Ethereum, the dominance of derivatives trading in crypto, and the growing influence of AI-driven protocols in the virtual currency sector.
In the first chapter, what the report dubbed “People’s power in prediction markets,” OKX described the rise of Polymarket, a decentralized prediction platform where investors place bets in crypto on future real-life events.
The trading platform described how Polymarket was “remarkably accurate” during the 2024 US presidential election compared to traditional media outlets like The Wall Street Journal. While mainstream news hesitated to call swing states until more than 24 hours after polls had closed, Polymarket had reportedly priced Donald Trump’s likelihood of winning at 97% by 8 PM EST on election day, November 5.
“What set Polymarket apart wasn’t just its speed but its accuracy. Throughout the election, Polymarket consistently offered more nuanced odds than pollsters, pricing Trump at a 62% likelihood to win while poll-based models declared the race a dead-even 50/50,” the report stated.
Solana leads 2024 DEX volume, Ethereum holds top liquidity spot
According to OKX’s report, Solana now accounts for 48% of total DEX volume, with its share surging to over 50% in late 2024. The trend continued into the first month of 2025, where Solana’s weekly highs continue to overshadow Ether’s volumes.
Last week, Ethereum (ETH) saw a significant spike in weekly decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume. Ether reached $24.7B, marking a 47.58% increase, according to data from DeFiLlama.
In contrast, Solana’s leading decentralized exchange (DEX), Raydium (RAY), experienced a 236% week-over-week increase, processing $52 billion in trading volume last week.
OKX notes that Solana’s peak trading volumes last year were largely attributed to memecoin launchpad Pump.fun, which alone generated more DEX traffic on Solana than the total volume seen on many other blockchains.
However, OKX mentioned an analysis by X user jpn_memelord, who revealed in a thread published in late October 2024 that Solana’s liquidity pools still trailed Ethereum in quality.
Ethereum retained its dominance in liquidity pool rankings, securing half of the top 20 spots. Layer 2 solutions claimed an additional seven spots in the list.
Below is the top 20 rankings by this weighting in ‘New Goodness’.
The first thing that jumps out is each Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, and Base are represented in the top 4 pools!
Each is the ‘premier’ pool that trades the native token for the chain against USDC. pic.twitter.com/4P5oilIx6B
— jpn memelord🛡️ (@jpn_memelord) October 25, 2024
Analysts from the trading platform noted that Solana’s liquidity was unsteady as compared to other networks because its pools “do not maintain Total Value Locked(TVL) numbers.”
They explained that most liquidity pools dropped in rankings due to the rapid launch and circulation of memecoins within the Solana network.
Derivatives trading in DEXs could charge ahead in 2025
The report also sheds light on how derivatives markets are outpacing spot markets in crypto, which has been a long trend in traditional finance (TradFi). In 2024, Bitcoin’s derivatives trading reportedly outweighed its spot volume, with a spot-to-derivatives ratio consistently hovering between 0.05 and 0.10.
While centralized exchanges (CEXs) have already embraced this trend, DEXs lag behind. On DEXs, spot trading volume remains about ten times higher than derivatives volume. There are several reasons for the discrepancy, including liquidity fragmentation, operational complexity, and the need for advanced infrastructure.
Additionally, derivatives DEXs face stiff competition from centralized entities. These CEXs offer fiat on/off ramps, earn products, and the ability to serve both spot and derivatives markets at one go.
To rise above these problems, platforms like dYdX and Hyperliquid have launched their own appchains. They employ specialized models and consensus mechanisms to improve performance.
Hyperliquid, for instance, plans to transition to a decentralized listing process for derivatives markets. It will use its upcoming “Hyperps” feature to create perpetual contracts for virtually any asset.
The report predicts that on-chain derivatives will eventually surpass spot trading volumes if the technological advancements seen from decentralized trading platforms like dYdX and Hyperliquid solve liquidity and scalability issues.
“These chains need to be highly performant to sustain a similar load to CEXs and they need to maintain a minimum level of centralization, in particular to avoid compliance issues arising,” OKX asserted.
Crypto/AI protocols emerge
The intersection of crypto and artificial intelligence (AI) was a major theme in 2024. The success of protocols like Bittensor and the proliferation of AI agents saw investors walk away with over 200% in returns in a matter of weeks.
One notable example is GOAT, a memecoin launched by the AI agent Truth Terminal. The coin peaked at a market cap of over $1.3 billion, per Coingecko data.
Crypto/AI protocols carry a wide range of applications, from decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) to gaming.
Virtuals has seen over 11,500 AI-agent-based tokens launched, with more than 340,000 token holders. These tokens represent the co-ownership of AI agents, enabling users to generate revenue through their activities on the platform.
However, OKX analysts caution that bad behavior by AI agents, such as executing faulty arbitrage strategies or falling victim to honeypot scams, could result in huge financial losses for AI token investors.
The immutable nature of blockchain transactions also complicates the issue. Wrong actions, even at the expense of losses, cannot be reversed.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/okx-2025-dex-report-solana-ethereum-defi/