The surge in meme coin activity appears to have driven increased trading volumes on the Solana blockchain, which offers superior capital efficiency compared to Ethereum.

Solana Surpasses Ethereum as Top Smart-Contract Blockchain by Trading Volume

Solana has taken the lead over Ethereum as the leading smart contract blockchain in terms of trading volume. Data from DeFiLlama indicates a remarkable 67% surge in trading volume on Solana-based decentralized exchanges (DEX) over the past seven days, reaching $21.3 billion. In comparison, trading volume on Ethereum-based DEXes saw a modest 3% increase, totaling $19.4 billion within the same period. Solana hosts 17 DEXes, with Orca emerging as the largest, responsible for 88% of the total trading volume. Meanwhile, Ethereum boasts 46 DEXes, led by Uniswap.

This shift dubbed the “flippening,” is attributed to the speculative frenzy surrounding meme coins such as dogwifwhat, bonk, book of the meme, and slerf on the Solana blockchain. Notably, the top trending tokens on the DEX Screener for the past 24 hours have all been from Solana. The surge in speculative activity has led to the creation of 2,300 meme coins within a single hour on March 13, while the supply of stablecoins on Solana reached a multiyear high of $2.80 billion.

Also, read- Frenzy Over Solana Meme Coins Sparks Comparisons to the Ethereum ICO Era

Solana‘s rise in trading volume traces back to the fourth quarter of 2023, fueled by initiatives like points programs and airdrops such as the Solana DEX Jupiter. Moreover, Solana demonstrates higher capital efficiency compared to Ethereum and other smart-contract blockchains. Reflexivity Research’s report commissioned by the Solana Foundation highlights Solana’s superior operational efficiency, evident in its higher DEX volume-to-total value locked (TVL) ratio.

The performance of Solana’s native SOL token reflects this success, surging by 68% to $170 this year, outperforming ether’s 40% rally to $3,214 and the broader crypto market’s 33% increase, as per sources data. The SOL/ETH ratio reached a record high of 0.059 on Monday, underscoring Solana’s strength relative to Ethereum. Despite Solana’s momentum, Ethereum remains the largest smart-contract blockchain by total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi ecosystem, standing at $46.44 billion, significantly higher than Solana’s $3.6 billion TVL at the time of reporting.