Ethereum Regains Top Spot as Leading DEX Chain, Surpassing Solana for the First Time Since September

Key Points to Know:

• Ethereum regained its position as the leading blockchain for decentralized exchange (DEX) trading in March, overtaking Solana for the first time since September.

• This shift occurred amid bearish market sentiment, especially within the memecoin sector, which resulted in a notable drop in activity on Solana-based DEXs like Raydium and Pump.fun.

• Despite Ethereum's strong performance, its native token, ether, dropped over 18% in March, a decline attributed to inflationary tokenomics and the increasing adoption of Layer 2 solutions.

In March, Ethereum regained its position as the top smart contract blockchain for decentralized exchange (DEX) trading, as the market downturn slowed activity on Solana, which had been the preferred platform for memecoin traders.

Ethereum-based DEXes saw a record cumulative trading volume of $64.616 billion in March, surpassing Solana’s $52.62 billion by 22%, according to data from DefiLama. This marked the first time since September that Ethereum took the lead, pushing Solana to second place.

The shift in leadership occurred as the total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped 4.2% to $2.63 trillion, extending February's 20% decline. This was driven by macroeconomic uncertainty and disappointment over the absence of new Bitcoin purchases for the U.S. strategic reserve, causing Bitcoin to fall below $80,000.

The bearish market sentiment significantly reduced speculation across the broader market, particularly in the memecoin sector, as seen by the sharp decline in activity on Raydium, the leading Solana-based DEX and a popular hub for meme trading in late 2024.

In March, Raydium failed to surpass $1 billion in daily trading volume, a stark contrast to its record high of $13 billion on January 18, according to data from DefiLlama. Additionally, the daily volume on the Solana-based memecoin launchpad averaged under $100 million in March, a significant drop from the $390 million peak in mid-January. Solana-based DEX activity had its peak with the launch of President Donald Trump's TRUMP token in January.

On the other hand, Ethereum's outperformance was largely driven by Uniswap, which saw over $30 billion in trading volume, with Fluid securing a distant second place with $9 billion in activity.

Despite Ethereum’s strong showing, its native token, ether, dropped more than 18% to $1,822 in March, underperforming compared to Solana’s SOL token, which fell by 15.8%, according to data from TradingView and CoinDesk.

Observers attribute ether's poor performance to its inflationary tokenomics and the rising popularity of Layer 2 solutions, which are believed to draw activity away from the main Ethereum chain.