Originally published on: December 10, 2024
Raydium, the decentralized exchange (DEX) native to Solana, has once again outshined Uniswap in monthly trading volumes for the second consecutive month, as reported by Messari on December 10.
In November, Raydium surpassed the leading DEX, Uniswap, by a significant margin of around 30%, amounting to approximately $30 billion in trading volumes.
This victory marks another milestone for Raydium, following a similar achievement in October when it outperformed Uniswap by 10%, as mentioned in a post by Ryan Watkins, co-founder of Syncracy Capital.
The secret to Raydium’s success lies in its dominance within the Solana ecosystem, where it consistently captures over 60% of the daily DEX volume on the layer-1 blockchain network.
A notable driver of Raydium’s trading volume is the surge in memecoin trading, which accounted for a record-breaking 65% of the DEX’s monthly volume in November, according to the Messari report.
Fuelled by venture capital funding and speculative interest, memecoins now boast a market capitalization of approximately $130 billion, making them a significant player in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
Solana has emerged as a hotspot for memecoin trading, largely thanks to the popularity of Pump.fun, a platform for minting memecoins and bootstrapping trading liquidity, with many Pump.fun memecoins finding their way to Raydium.
In a recent development, Pump.fun has emerged as the fifth-highest-earning Web3 protocol by revenue, generating over $100 million in fee revenues in the past 30 days, as reported by DefiLlama.
While Raydium remains exclusive to Solana, Uniswap operates across 18 different blockchain networks, showcasing a more diversified presence in the DeFi landscape.
Solana’s total value locked (TVL) has seen a remarkable fivefold increase in 2024, driven by its technical advantages including high throughput and low transaction costs, attracting users seeking a faster and cost-effective DeFi experience.
With Uniswap launching its own layer-2 blockchain network, Unichain, the competition between Raydium and Uniswap is set to intensify, shaping the future of DEX trading in the DeFi space.