"Solana's DEX Dominance: Memecoins Fuel 89.7% Market Share Surge"

Solana, a high-performance blockchain platform, has emerged as a dominant player in the decentralized exchange (DEX) market, capturing nearly half of the market share. This growth is largely attributed to the frenzy surrounding memecoins, which have been launched and traded on the Solana network. According to OKX's State of DEXs 2025 report, Solana's blazing transaction speeds, minimal costs, and developer-friendly tools have propelled its dominance in the DEX market.

Dune Analytics data revealed that Solana briefly captured an astounding 89.7% DEX market share during the last week of December. Over the past five weeks, the network has consistently maintained over 50% market dominance. This rise is largely due to the activity on Pump.fun, a memecoin launchpad that has outperformed Ethereum's DEX volumes. OKX suggested that Solana's dominance might be sustainable in the long term, given its superior performance in transaction fees, active wallet addresses, and platform usability.

A significant portion of Solana's recent trading volume came from memecoins associated with former U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife Melania. The tokens launched just before and after Trump's January 20 inauguration, respectively, reaching a combined market cap of over $20 billion at their peak. Jupiter, a Solana-native DEX platform, accounted for nearly 70% of Solana's trading activity. OKX praised the platform for its ability to optimize slippage, provide accurate real-time pricing, and mitigate platform risks, further cementing Solana's appeal as the "retail chain" of choice in DeFi markets.

However, OKX pointed out that Ethereum and its layer 2 solutions still dominate in terms of weekly trading volumes per address and average trade sizes, indicating continued whale activity on the Ethereum network. While Solana shines with retail users, Ethereum remains the leader in total value locked (TVL) and liquidity pool quality. Ethereum retains an 82% share of the tokenized real-world asset market, dwarfing Solana's 2.5% share, according to data from 21Shares. Despite Solana's rapid rise, OKX noted that Ethereum continues to be the "bedrock" for DeFi innovation.

As Ethereum layer 2 solutions increasingly compete with Solana's low fees and