Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) set a record high in December, with monthly trading volume soaring to $462 billion, according to decentralized finance (DeFi) data platform DefiLlama.
Data released on Dec. 30 showed that December was the highest-ever month for DEX volumes, continuing momentum from November.
Monthly decentralized exchange volume. Source: DefiLlama
In November, the DeFi space saw a monthly volume of $374 billion, driven by anticipation of a more favorable regulatory regime in the United States following Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.
Top decentralized exchanges by volume
Uniswap remained the leading DEX by trading volume, recording $106.4 billion over the past 30 days, according to DefiLlama. PancakeSwap secured second place with $96.4 billion in monthly volume.
Top decentralized exchanges by monthly trading volume. Source: DefiLlama
Solana’s largest DEX Raydium took third place after the trading platform had a volume of $58 billion in the last 30 days. The uptick aligns with a revenue boost in Solana’s decentralized applications (DApps) during November.
On Dec. 17, research platform Syndica reported that Solana-based DApps recorded revenue of $365 million in November, largely driven by memecoins created on the Solana memecoin launchpad Pump.fun.
Aerodrome and Orca took the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Aerodrome had a volume of $31 billion, while Orca’s volume reached $22 billion. Lifinity, Curve Finance and Hyperliquid recorded a combined volume of $43.6 billion.
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Memecoins lose $40 billion in market cap in December
While DeFi trading volumes climbed, the memecoin market experienced a sharp correction in December. CoinMarketCap data shows that the overall memecoin market cap skyrocketed at the beginning of December before declining.
On Dec. 9, memecoins peaked at $137 billion in market capitalization. However, on Dec. 23, the total market cap for meme-based tokens had dropped by $45 billion to $92 billion. At the time of writing, the total market capitalization for memecoins was $95 billion, 20% lower than its market cap on Dec. 1.
The early surge in December was likely driven by increased interest from US-based trading platforms listing memecoins and Pepe (PEPE) hitting a new all-time high.
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