• Solana’s DeFi activities surged, with 9.25 million daily swaps on Christmas, outperforming Ethereum’s 135,000 transactions.

• Solana’s DEX platforms surpassed Ethereum in trading volume, reaching $10.786 billion in the past week.

Solana (SOL), the high-performance blockchain network, has recently emerged as a dominant force in decentralized finance (DeFi). Its decentralized exchange (DEX) platforms have seen an extraordinary surge in trading volume, outpacing even the formidable Ethereum (ETH) network. 

Solana’s Remarkable DeFi Activity

Recent years have seen a sharp increase in Solana’s DeFi activity; on Christmas Day, daily swap transactions reached an incredible 9.25 million. On the other hand, Ethereum, a platform well-known for its smart contract functionality, only handled 135,000 transactions in a single day. 

Because they allow users to exchange cryptocurrencies instantaneously, these swap transactions have become an essential statistic for assessing DeFi growth. The increase in demand and confidence for Solana’s DeFi protocols, including decentralized exchanges (DEXes), is seen in the swap transactions on the platform.

Solana Surpasses Ethereum in DEX Volume

Solana is the market leader in DEX, according to recent statistics. DEX platforms in Solana beat Ethereum’s $1.282 billion daily trading volume with $1.447 billion. In just seven days, trading volume on Solana’s DEXs reached an astounding $10.786 billion, surpassing Ethereum’s $9.604 billion.

DEX platforms, including Raydium, Orca, Lifinity, Phoenix, Openbook, and Mango Markets, are noteworthy for having contributed significantly to this volume rise. Drift, Crema, and Saber have also seen notable activity.

Airdrops and SOL’s Growth

A series of calculated token airdrops have partly fueled Solana’s impressive performance. In late November, the oracle network Pyth launched an airdrop that gave its users tokens worth about $87 million. Jito, the second-biggest liquid staking system in Solana, followed suit and distributed JTO tokens with a market value of almost $228 million.

Airdrops have proved crucial in promoting development in DeFi ecosystems, although equitable distribution is still a problem. Anti-sybil methods have been implemented to mitigate issues pertaining to the dispersal of airdrops.

A considerable amount of Solana’s recent DEX trade traffic has passed through the Jupiter aggregator on the network. Jupiter’s main job is maximizing prices with the least slippage by aggregating liquidity. Significantly, Jupiter’s impending token launch will airdrop 40% of the tokens to the community.

Sol’s Meteoric Rise

SOL, the native coin of Solana, has been essential to the platform’s growth. Over the past year, SOL has grown astonishingly, rising by 895% against the US dollar. The Solana ecosystem’s interest and investment levels have increased dramatically as a result of this optimistic trend.

Although Ethereum’s DEX protocols have historically dominated the DeFi market, Solana’s remarkable weekly and daily volume indicates a significant change in the dynamics of the DEX market. Because of its effectiveness and low transaction fees, Solana is becoming increasingly popular among traders and users, giving it a strong rival to Ethereum.

A Dune Analytics dashboard reveals a drop of more than 2 million SOL staked last week. This suggests that liquid staking on Solana has slowed despite the DEX activity spike. While Ethereum continues to maintain its strong presence in the DeFi realm, Solana’s emergence as a formidable competitor underscores its growing influence in the industry