Ethereum Reclaims Top DEX Chain for First Time Since September, Beating Solana

The change in leadership comes amid bearish trends in the market, particularly in the memecoin segment.

Author: Omkar Godbole | Edited by : Parikshit Mishra Updated: Apr 1, 2025 1:11 PM UTC Published: Apr 1, 2025 6:48 AM UTC

Key points:

• In March, Ethereum regained its status as the leading smart contract blockchain for trading on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), overtaking Solana for the first time since September.
• The leadership change comes amid bearish sentiment in the market, particularly in the memecoin space, which has led to a significant decline in activity on DEXs such as Solana, Raydium, and Pump.fun.
• Despite Ethereum's strong performance, its Ether token has fallen more than 18% in March, driven by inflationary tokenomics and the growing popularity of second-layer solutions.

Ethereum has regained its position as the leading smart contract blockchain for trading on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) in the past month as the market downturn has dampened activity on Solana, a platform for memecoin traders.

According to DefiLama, Ethereum-based DEXs saw a record $64.616 billion in trading volume in March, up 22% from Solana's $52.62 billion. This marks the first time since September that Ethereum has topped the list, pushing Solana into second place.

By subscribing, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy .

The change in leadership came as the overall crypto market capitalization fell 4.2% to $2.63 trillion, continuing a 20% drop in February as macroeconomic uncertainty and disappointment over the lack of new BTC purchases for the U.S. Strategic Reserve sent Bitcoin below $80,000.

Bearish market sentiment has led to a reduction in speculation in the broader market, particularly in the memecoin space, reflected in a significant drop in activity on Raydium, a leading Solana-based DEX and meme trading hotspot in late 2024.

According to DefiLlama, Raydium trading volume did not exceed $1 billion in March, marking a significant decline from the all-time high of $13 billion set on January 18.

Also, average daily volume on the Solana-based memecoin platform was less than $100 million in March, well below its peak of $

Источник