Solana Outpaces Rivals in DEX Volume for Fifth Consecutive Month

• Solana DEX weekly volumes are up 11.89% this week, ETH DEX volumes are up 29.22%.
• The THORChain (RUNE) token has declined 68% in value since Jan. 1, 2025.
• North Korean hacking group Lazarus is believed to be washing funds stolen from Bybit via THORChain.

Solana (SOL) decentralized exchanges (DEX) have reached their fifth consecutive month at the top of the charts, beating out Ethereum (ETH) and Binance networks, as users continue to process tens of billions in trades every week.

In addition, THORChain (RUNE), despite accumulating $200 million in liabilities and shutting down parts of its decentralized finance (DeFi) services, has seen a 422% explosion in DEX trading volumes, though not for the reasons it would like.

Solana DEX Dominance

As per data from DeFi Llama, Solana DEXs have tallied a gigantic $112.8 billion in 30-day trading volumes, outpacing Ethereum for the fifth month in a row. In that same period, Ethereum DEXs recorded $87 billion and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) trailed closely behind with $86.64 billion.

Now that SOL DEX cumulative volumes are at $1.05 trillion, it still has some way to go before it can topple Ethereum’s $3.65 trillion. However, it does mean that SOL DEXs are on course to overtake BSC’s $1.33 trillion cumulative volumes.

Raydium continues to dominate the competition on Solana, tallying $43.75 billion in trading volumes over the past 30 days. In second place is Meteora with $24.69 billion, followed by Orca with $22.74 billion.

Since October 2024, Solana DEX activity has soared above the rest, largely thanks to the rampant memecoin mania spurred by Pump.fun token launches in Q4. That said, Solana also is a highly attractive network for DeFi activity beyond memecoins.

Lazarus Washing

Interestingly, network-in-crisis THORChain has experienced a gigantic spike in DEX trading volumes, which surged to 422%, recording $4.66 billion, in the past 7 days.

However, and rather unfortunately, this renewed vitality hasn’t come from returning community members and traders looking to put trust back into the embattled network.

After stealing billions worth of ETH from Bybit in late February, analysts have posited that they’re leveraging THORCHain DEX platforms, such as Chainflip , to wash funds.

Former THORChain core dev, Pluto, previously came to the network’s defense, explaining that once they had started seeing the illicit flows, the team began implementing screening services across different platforms.

Pluto advocated for any frontends integrating Layer-1s directly to follow suit in order to stop these funds “without compromising L1 integrity,” adding:

“It’s our job as L1 operators to ensure the 2nd and 3rd layers (aggregators and frontends) conform with industry best practices. We do this because in the absence of providing such guidance, governments will attempt to shut down L1s, thus depriving the world of valuable public utility infrastructure.“

The news arrives as THORChain works to bring a $200 million unserviceable debt crisis under control before a disaster can unravel. Since Jan. 1, 2025, THORChain’s market cap has dropped from $1.53 billion to just $487.89 million, a decline of roughly 68%.