Decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium has surpassed Uniswap in monthly volumes for the second month in a row, according to a Dec. 10 Messari report.
In November, Solana native Raydium beat Uniswap — generally the most popular DEX — in monthly volumes by roughly 30%, or approximately $30 billion, according to the report.
This followed a narrower win in October, when Raydium outperformed Uniswap by approximately 10%, according to a Nov. 17 post on the X platform by Ryan Watkins, co-founder of Syncracy Capital.
Raydium’s “success is largely attributed to its dominance within the Solana ecosystem,” the Messari report said, adding that the DEX consistently captures over 60% of daily DEX volume on the layer-1 blockchain network.
In particular, “[m]emecoin trading has become a substantial driver of Raydium’s volume, with memecoins accounting for an all-time high of 65% of Raydium’s monthly volume in November,” the report added.
Source: Messari
Memecoin frenzy
Fueled by venture capital funding and political speculation, memecoins now command approximately $130 billion in market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.
In 2024, Solana emerged as a hub for memecoin trading, largely because of the soaring popularity of Pump.fun, a platform for minting memecoins and bootstrapping trading liquidity.
Many Pump.fun memecoins eventually trade on Raydium.
According to DefiLlama, Pump.fun is the fifth-highest-earning Web3 protocol by revenue, clocking upward of $100 million in fee revenues during the past 30 days.
Pump.fun’s revenues rank just below those of giants such as Circle, USD Coin’s (USDC) issuer, and the Solana network.
In October, the team behind Pump.fun tipped plans for a future token release and a newly upgraded trading terminal, dubbed “Pump Advance.”
Source: Messari
Raydium solely operates on Solana, whereas Uniswap maintains an expansive presence across some 18 blockchain networks, according to DefiLlama.
Solana’s total value locked (TVL) has increased by approximately five times in 2024. It still greatly lags frontrunner Ethereum, which commands upward of $70 billion in TVL, according to DefiLlama.
Solana’s “growth is partly due to [its] technical advantages, including high throughput and low transaction costs, which have attracted users seeking a faster and more cost-effective DeFi experience,” the Messari report said.
On Oct. 10, Uniswap launched its own application-specific layer-2 blockchain network, Unichain.
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