Commenter: Lynn Nguyen, Saros CEO
Solana’s decentralized exchange (DEX) has been at the top of the trading volume charts for some time, outpacing the trading volume of peer chains such as Ethereum, Base, and BSC.
The main reason for this surge in volume is meme coins. Although they have proven product-market fit in cryptocurrencies, only a handful have demonstrated the ability to survive throughout market cycles.
For Solana DEX to maintain its dominance, it must demonstrate that it can withstand constantly evolving market conditions and short-term trends.
This also means building more resilient and liquid markets for durable assets like Bitcoin by improving the depth and diversity of liquidity pools.
Rise of Solana DEX
“Solana is drinking an Ethereum milkshake.”
OKX explained the growing attention of Solana DEX in this way in its “The State of DEXs 2025” report.
In the last week of December 2024, Solana DEX accounted for almost 90% of the total DEX market share. This is an almost incredible comeback following the expected ecosystem capitulation during the most recent bear market. Since then, the dominance has fluctuated but remained impressively strong.
Solana’s fast transaction speeds, minimal costs, and developer-friendly tools drove growth, leading in transactions and DEX active users. The OKX report states:
“Solana is truly a retail chain.”
Its market share remained above 50% in January 2025, surpassing Ethereum and Base on some days.
Matthew Sigel, head of research at asset management platform VanEck, said, “Despite the MemeCoin meltdown, Solana DEX trading volumes still hold their own and are broadly in line with the ETH ecosystem as a whole.”
However, it was not until August that the Ethereum-based DEX overtook Solana’s DEX due to interest from institutional investors and a large influx of spot ETFs.
Solana’s overall DEX volume has significantly decreased due to a decrease in the trading volume of highly speculative assets. By early September, trading volume had fallen 65% to $10 billion. These reductions have been further exacerbated by the rise of “prop” or “dark” AMMs on Solana, which have eroded the market share of traditional DEXs over the past year.
This raises an important question. Should Solana DEX focus on more sustainable assets?
Two major obstacles to growth
Solana DEX has two significant challenges. It is an issue related to over-reliance on trading highly speculative assets and deep liquidity.
The most speculative assets are usually also the most volatile. This results in large spikes and crashes not only in assets but also in trading volumes, especially when considering the long term period of the latter.
Related: Solana DEX Jupiter suspends DAO voting until 2026 to focus on DeFi growth
For example, trading volume at Pump.fun, Solana’s main meme coin launchpad, plummeted 63% in one month, and DEX trading volume fell 90%. This occurred in what is widely considered a bull market. Furthermore, extraction scams and significant price drops from LIBRA to TRUMP meme tokens have also tarnished Solana’s image as a trusted trading ecosystem.
Looking into the depth of Solana’s liquidity, a detailed study published in OKX’s 2025 DEX report revealed some worrying signs. A 30-day comparative study of Ethereum, Solana, BSC, Arbitrum, and Base showed Solana to underperform based on key parameters such as trading history, liquidity depth, and sustained trading volume.
Most of Solana’s liquidity pools lack sufficient Total Value Lock (TVL), suggesting that even though Solana recorded high DEX trading volumes, it trades with much less liquidity compared to other blockchains, which could have a negative price impact for traders.
Optimizing capital efficiency is critical, and depth of liquidity is only beneficial if it is leveraged. It is up to the aggregator to properly route trades through multiple liquidity sources, and the DEX to ensure it is deep enough to support large-scale trades.
Building a liquid market
To bring more liquidity to Solana DEX, we need to fill them with resilient large market cap tokens. What better starting point than Bitcoin, the biggest of them all?
Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi) is already a rapidly growing niche market within the cryptocurrency industry. As a $2.3 trillion asset class, protocols and users alike are increasingly looking to leverage BTC as a productive asset through on-chain activity. In fact, BTCFi VC funding reached $175 million in the first half of 2025.
Solana DEX can seize the opportunity to build deep liquidity for a variety of emerging BTC-wrapped assets. Many of them already have large individual market capitalizations. After all, Bitcoin’s ability to weather uncertain and volatile market environments has already been proven many times over its 17-year history.
After BTCFi, it is clear that the stablecoin market continues to grow stronger and stronger. Rather, it makes sense to build deep liquidity in a variety of stablecoins, as demand will rise even more once we enter a bear market.
This is especially true for blockchains like Solana, which clearly has a strong interest in maximizing the adoption of stablecoins on-chain. It’s not difficult to find clues. Check out Solana’s Stable Future Summit in South Korea. This is the first-ever stablecoin-focused conference, held on September 23rd of this year.
By prioritizing the strongest assets in the industry, such as Bitcoin and stablecoins, you can build a stronger foundation for Solana DeFi. This will help Solana achieve its long-term goal of becoming the foundation supporting Internet capital markets and stand firm even in unfavorable market conditions.
Posted by: Lynn Nguyen, Saros CEO.
This article is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be, and should not be taken as, legal or investment advice. The views, ideas, and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.