Solana beats Ethereum in a key metric 3 months in a row

Solana continued to perform well in December as meme coins helped it gain market share against Ethereum and other blockchains.

According to DeFi Llama, Solana’s (SOL) protocols in the decentralized exchange industry were the most active protocols in December.

Its volume rose to over $97 billion, well above the $22.6 billion it handled in the same period last year.

Notably, it was the third month in a row that Solana surpassed Ethereum (ETH), which has dominated the industry for years. Ethereum’s protocols had over $74 billion in volume, while Base and Arbitrum managed $42 billion and $37 billion.

Solana DEX volume | Source: DeFi Lama

Solana also had a great performance in November, when DEX networks had a volume of $129 billion; this was higher than Ethereum’s $70.6 billion. A month ago, Solana was handling $52 billion in volume, while Ethereum was processing $41 billion in transactions.

The bulk of Solana’s DEX volume was thanks to Raydium (RAY), a network that processed $65 billion worth of coins in the last 30 days. Orca managed $24 billion, while Lifinity, Pump and Phoenix had volumes of over $5.93 billion.

Solana’s DEX volume has increased thanks to the meme coin industry, which continues to perform well this year. Solana has mined thousands of meme coins this year, with the help of the creation of the largest token producer, Pump. The market cap of all Solana meme coins, led by Bonk, Dogwifhat, Popcat, and Peanut the Squirrel, is over $14.1 billion.

This growth has been highly profitable for Solana and its local practices. All native dApps on Solana generated a record $365 million in revenue in November. Similarly, according to TokenTerminal, Solana’s blockchain generated a record $725 million in fees in 2024, making it the third most profitable chain after Ethereum and Tron.

Developers and users love Solana for its very low fees and higher efficiency.

Base, the layer 2 network launched by Coinbase, also became a breakout star in 2024, with total fees reaching over $82 million. It has become the largest layer 2 network in the blockchain industry, with DEX networks managing assets exceeding $181 billion, with its total value rising to $2 billion.