Solana News Today: Whales and Bots Fuel Avalanche's DeFi and Memecoin Frenzy

Avalanche’s blockchain activity has surged recently, driven primarily by decentralized trading, automated trading bots, and speculative memecoin activity from large investors, according to Nansen analysts. Over the past week, Avalanche recorded 11.9 million transactions across 181,000 active addresses, a 66% increase compared to the previous week, making it the top-performing blockchain in terms of transaction volume [5]. This growth is attributed to increased engagement from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, miner extractable value (MEV) bots, and whale speculation around the next potential memecoin breakout [5].

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are the primary catalysts for the surge in Avalanche activity. Trader Joe, one of the leading DEXs on the platform, accounted for over $333 million in Avalanche Wrapped Ether (WETH.e) trading volume over the past 7 days. Other DeFi platforms such as Aave and Benqi also contributed significantly, with Aave seeing $624,000 in flash loan activity and Benqi receiving $650,000 in deposits from trading bots [5]. Nansen analysts noted that high-volume traders on its top 100 leaderboard executed multiple six-figure trades, further amplifying the DEX-driven activity [5].

Automated trading and whale speculation also play a key role in Avalanche’s growing blockchain footprint. Automated trading bots, MEV arbitrage strategies, and MEV extraction efforts contributed 25% of the total transaction volume. Whale addresses accumulated large positions in speculative tokens, with the BLACK token seeing $14 million in trading volume and several whale addresses holding up to $95,000 worth of the token [5]. This pattern of whale behavior is reminiscent of recent memecoin frenzies, where large investors speculate on the next viral token, often driving volume and volatility on the underlying blockchain.

While Avalanche’s institutional adoption has been on the rise—with the U.S. Department of Commerce recently using the platform to publish real GDP data—Nansen analysts caution that it is premature to attribute the surge in blockchain activity to that adoption [5]. Instead, the growth is more directly linked to speculative trading and the return of whale-driven memecoin speculation.

Avalanche’s activity surge contrasts with the performance of its main competitor, Solana. While Avalanche’s transaction volume grew by 66%, Solana’s weekly transaction volume declined by 6.7%, with 433 million transactions processed across 18.9 million active addresses. DEX activity on Solana also remained high, with Raydium and Fluxbeam driving the bulk of the volume [5]. Despite this, Avalanche’s DeFi and memecoin-driven activity appears to be outpacing its competitor in terms of growth and user engagement.

The recent adoption of Avalanche by Stripe as a fiat-to-crypto onramp further signals growing institutional and retail interest in the platform. Stripe’s integration allows users to purchase AVAX directly through Avalanche dApps without needing to go through traditional exchanges. This move aims to address the “cold start problem” for Web3 users by simplifying the process of funding their wallets [3]. Core, Avalanche’s native wallet, now supports the Stripe onramp, giving users more flexible options to fund their accounts using ACH, debit, or credit cards [3].

Analysts suggest that while Avalanche remains a top-15 cryptocurrency by market capitalization, its position is increasingly under scrutiny from emerging competitors like Layer Brett (LBRETT), a memecoin-turned-Layer 2 solution. Layer Brett combines speed, low fees, and Ethereum’s security with a strong community-driven narrative and high staking incentives, making it a potential disruptor for Avalanche in 2025 [4]. However, Avalanche’s strong infrastructure, rapid finality, and growing DeFi ecosystem continue to make it a key player in the crypto landscape [3].

Source:

[1] Why Avalanche (AVAX) Could Skyrocket in the Coming Days (https://investx.fr/en/crypto-news/why-avalanche-avax-could-skyrocket-in-coming-days/)

[2] AVAX.X - Avalanche (https://stocktwits.com/symbol/AVAX.X)

[3] Avalanche Integrates with Stripe for Crypto Onramping (https://www.avax.network/about/blog/avalanche-integrates-with-stripe-for-crypto-onramping)

[4] As Fast As Solana, Cheaper Than Cardano—Why Layer Brett is Being Backed to Flip AVAX in 2025 (https://crypto-economy.com/as-fast-as-solana-cheaper-than-cardano-why-layer-brett-is-being-backed-to-flip-avax-in-2025/)

[5] Avalanche activity driven by DEXes, trading bots, whale memecoin speculation (https://cointelegraph.com/news/avalanche-activity-dex-trading-bots-whale-memecoin-speculation)