Solana DEX Jupiter Briefly Flips Uniswap in Trading Volume

Solana’s Jupiter decentralized exchange (DEX) has briefly surpassed Ethereum’s Uniswap in terms of daily trading volume, indicating a growing interest in the Solana blockchain ecosystem, particularly in its decentralized finance (DeFi) offerings.

Jupiter operates on the Solana network and has achieved a trading volume of more than $517 million in the last 24 hours. In contrast, Uniswap’s V3 protocol recorded around $440 million during the same timeframe, data from CoinGecko shows.

The next three largest DEXes in terms of daily trading volume are Solana-based DEX Orca, Uniswap V3 protocol on Arbitrum One, and Binance Smart Chain‘s Pancakeswap V3, each recording around $266 million, $150 million, and $143 million, respectively.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Why is Jupiter DEX Surging?
3. Upcoming JUP Aidrop Sparks Interest in Jupiter
4. Solana Continues to Achieve New Milestones

Show Full Guide

Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Why is Jupiter DEX Surging?
3. Upcoming JUP Aidrop Sparks Interest in Jupiter
Show Full Guide
4. Solana Continues to Achieve New Milestones

Why is Jupiter DEX Surging?

The surge in trading activity on Jupiter has been primarily fueled by two key factors, including the frenzy surrounding a new memecoin airdrop and a significant amount of stablecoin swaps.

The memecoin at the center of this trading activity is named “Wen.” This coin was recently distributed through an airdrop to Solana users who had previously interacted with Jupiter in the past six months and to Solana’s Saga phone owners.

The move was part of an experimental strategy by Jupiter’s developers ahead of the much-anticipated airdrop of Jupiter’s native token, JUP, slated for launch at the end of January. The Wen memecoin contributed over $50 million to Jupiter’s daily trading volume.

In addition to the Wen memecoin transactions, a substantial portion of Jupiter’s trading volume came from the exchange of Solana (SOL) into stablecoins like Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT), contributing around $191 million to the total volume.

The increasing trading volumes on Jupiter underscore the rising popularity of Solana as a blockchain platform and its growing adoption in the DeFi space.

Upcoming JUP Aidrop Sparks Interest in Jupiter

It is worth noting that the upcoming JUP token airdrop has played a significant role in spiking interest among both retail and institutional investors.

The airdrop, set to take place on January 31, 2024, will see Jupiter distribute a total of 1 billion JUP tokens among users. The first airdrop’s eligibility criteria required users to interact with the Jupiter platform before November 2, 2023.

An estimated 955,000 wallets that had engaged with Jupiter before this cut-off date are eligible for the airdrop.

The JUP token will serve as a governance token, allowing holders to participate in important decision-making processes regarding the Jupiter platform.

Solana Continues to Achieve New Milestones

The recent achievement by Jupiter is part of a broader context where Solana has been making notable strides in the crypto community. Previously, Solana had outperformed Ethereum in stablecoin trading volume over a seven-day period and also surpassed Ethereum in non-fungible token (NFT) trade volume for a month.

The popularity of Solana is evident not only in trading volumes but also in search trends. In mid-December, worldwide searches for “Solana” surpassed those for “Ethereum,” as reported by Google Trends.

Furthermore, in a report released earlier this month, the Solana Foundation highlighted that the network has maintained a consistent range of 2,500 to 3,000 monthly active developers throughout the past year, a testament to the ecosystem’s ability to attract and retain talent.

“Although the Solana ecosystem is relatively new — Solana mainnet beta went live in March 2020 — its developer ecosystem has grown to the second largest ecosystem in total monthly active developers,” the report said.