Decentralized finance (DeFi) activity could be slowing down in early September. According to DeFiLlama, all DeFi protocols distributed on major blockchains like Ethereum and Solana manage Approximately $77 billion in assets. Ethereum dominates in total value locked (TVL).
Raydium dominates Solana's DeFi scene
While this may be the case, Solana’s DeFi scene is booming, if recent data is anything to go by. Raydium, a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana, has cemented its position as one of the top DeFi protocols on the platform.
According to data from Artemis shared According to an X analyst, the DEX has a 60% market share and attracts over 200,000 active users on average. At this rate, Raydium is the most active DeFi protocol, ahead of Jupiter.
Increased user activity has also caused the daily active address base to skyrocket. The latest data sample that the modern blockchain has an average of 5.5 million daily active users, the highest number in history. At this rate, despite the rise of Ethereum and its layer 2 ecosystem, its protocols are not as active as those being deployed on Solana.
Solana is scalable at the base layer, unlike Ethereum scaling solutions like Base and Arbitrum. The result is high performance and more trust, as there are no tools like a fail-safe system or there is a sequencer. These off-chain systems tend to introduce weaknesses and lead to centralization.
Gas fees drop rapidly and Meme Coin activity moves to Tron
Interestingly, even as daily active addresses increase, gas fees fall. As of September 7, revenue generated from gas fees was at a six-month low of around $414,000.
While revenue has temporarily recovered, it is nothing compared to the $5 million generated on March 18, according to TokenTerminal. data.
The drop in fees could be related to the falling popularity of Pump.fun, a meme coin launchpad on Solana. Over the past few weeks, the launchpad’s gas fees have been on the decline, dropping by over 80% after peaking at over $2.31 million in late July. By Sept. 7, Pump.fun generated around $319,000 in fees, representing an increase of $1.2 million. DeFiLlama.
Meme coin activity, judging by solid data from DeFiLlama, appears to be shifting to Tron, another scalable blockchain. The launch of a meme coin launchpad, SunPump, in August coincided with the decrease in Pump.fun activity, and therefore, there are daily fees for Solana.
Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from TradingView
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