Opinion by: Lynn Nguyen, CEO of Saros
Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on Solana have consistently led trading volume metrics, surpassing competitors like Ethereum, Base, and BSC.
This volume increase has been largely driven by memecoins. While these coins have found a niche in the crypto market, only a select few have proven resilient through market fluctuations.
To maintain their prominence, Solana DEXs must demonstrate the ability to adapt to shifting market dynamics and transient trends.
Achieving this requires constructing more robust and liquid markets for enduring assets like Bitcoin by enhancing the depth and variety of their liquidity pools.
The rise of Solana DEXs
“Solana is drinking the Ethereum milkshake.”
This characterization by OKX illustrates the growing influence of Solana DEXs in its ‘The State of DEXs 2025’ report.
By the end of December 2024, Solana DEXs commanded nearly 90% of the overall DEX market share—an astonishing rebound after the ecosystem’s perceived capitulation in the last bear market. Since that point, dominance has varied but remained robust.
Rapid transaction speeds, low costs, and developer-friendly frameworks have fueled Solana’s expansion, leading in transaction volume and DEX user engagement. As the OKX report highlighted:
“Solana is truly the retail chain.”
Market share stayed above 50% in January 2025, occasionally surpassing Ethereum and Base.
VanEck’s head of research, Matthew Sigel, pointed out that “Despite the MemeCoin Meltdown, Solana DEX volumes are still holding their own — roughly matching the entire ETH ecosystem.”
However, it was in August that Ethereum-based DEXs surpassed Solana, spurred by institutional interest and significant spot ETF capital inflows.
The reduction in trading of speculative assets greatly impacted Solana’s overall DEX volumes. By early September, volumes had fallen 65% to $10 billion. This decline has been exacerbated by the emergence of “Prop” or “Dark” AMMs, which have eroded the market share of traditional DEXs in the last year.
This raises a critical inquiry: Should Solana DEXs pivot towards more sustainable assets?
Two key obstacles to growth
Solana DEXs face two major hurdles: excessive reliance on speculative asset trading and liquidity depth concerns.
The most speculative assets tend to exhibit high volatility, resulting in dramatic fluctuations not only in the assets themselves but also in trading volumes, especially over extended periods.
Related: Solana DEX Jupiter suspends DAO voting until 2026 to focus on DeFi growth
For example, trading volume on Pump.fun, the leading memecoin launchpad on Solana, dropped 63% within a month, with DEX volume declining by 90%, despite occurring during what is generally viewed as a bullish market. Additionally, scams and notable price declines related to various meme tokens have tarnished Solana’s reputation as a dependable trading platform.
A detailed analysis of liquidity depth on Solana, published in OKX’s 2025 DEX report, revealed troubling indicators. A comparison across Ethereum, Solana, BSC, Arbitrum, and Base over 30 days indicated Solana’s subpar performance in critical metrics like trading history, liquidity depth, and sustained trading volume.
Many liquidity pools on Solana fell short of adequate total value locked (TVL), suggesting that while Solana showcased high DEX trading volumes, it did so with considerably less liquidity compared to other blockchains, which may adversely affect traders’ price impacts.
Enhancing capital efficiency is essential, and liquidity depth is only advantageous if effectively employed. It relies on aggregators effectively routing trades through multiple liquidity sources, while DEXs must ensure sufficient depth for larger trades.
Building liquid markets
To increase liquidity within Solana DEXs, it’s vital to incorporate resilient, high market cap tokens, with Bitcoin being an ideal candidate.
Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi) has emerged as a flourishing sector within the crypto landscape. As a $2.3 trillion asset class, both protocols and users are increasingly exploring BTC as a productive asset through on-chain activities. Indeed, BTCFi VC funding reached $175 million in the first half of 2025.
Solana DEXs have an opportunity to establish deep liquidity for various BTC-wrapped assets, many of which already have substantial individual market caps. After all, Bitcoin has repeatedly demonstrated its resilience amid uncertain and volatile market environments.
In addition to BTCFi, stablecoin markets are also experiencing substantial growth. They are particularly sought after as markets approach bearish trends, making it logical to build deep liquidity for a variety of stablecoins.
This is crucial for blockchains like Solana, which are clearly keen on promoting stablecoin adoption within their ecosystem. This is illustrated by Solana’s Stable Future Summit in Korea, its inaugural stablecoin-focused conference held on September 23 of this year.
By prioritizing the industry’s most robust assets, such as Bitcoin and stablecoins, we can create a more solid foundation for Solana DeFi. This will enable Solana to work towards its long-term vision of underpinning internet capital markets and help it remain resilient under adverse market conditions.
Opinion by: Lynn Nguyen, CEO of Saros.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
