Ethereum (ETH) was still the leader of DEX activity in 2024, at least in terms of trading volumes. The Uniswap V3 contract was one of the most used contracts throughout the year, offering the best liquidity for wrapped ETH and stablecoins.
Ethereum still outpaced other chains in its annual DEX activity and volumes. Despite lagging meme token launches, Ethereum hosted significant liquidity through Uniswap V3, which still has not been replaced on L2 chains or any other network.
Over the past twelve months, Ethereum DEX has achieved a trading volume of $674 billion, which still surpasses Solana’s $626 billion. BNB Chain took third place with $352 billion. The year-end results came after Solana led the DEX business last quarter.
During the year, DEX activity was mainly concentrated on 15 chains, which reflected other metrics such as daily active wallets and transaction numbers. In total, eight L1 chains accounted for a significant portion of DEX traffic. In addition to Solana and Ethereum, DEX activity focused on BNB Chain, Avalanche, SUI, TRON, Aptos and TON.
Meme tokens drove DEX activity on most top chains, with the most active specialty markets on Ethereum, Solana, BNBChain and TON. DEX also had a different profile, with a mix of meme activity and highly liquid pairs of blue chip assets. The 2024 trend does not yet reflect Hyperliquid, which only recently launched its own HYPE token and increased its activity.
DEX activity is back to 2022 levels
DEX value locked has yet to return to 2021 levels. Currently DEX is locked on all chains $24.46 billionwhich recently reached an annual peak. Ethereum preserves $8.46% of total DEX liquidity, with pools available in some of the leading stablecoins.
Both the market as a whole and Ethereum’s DEX activity have rebuilt their value to levels not seen since late 2022. The overall DEX sector will end the year with an expansion streak in December.
Overall DEX activity is gradually recovering. While liquidity providers are still receiving rewards, the available DEX has seen a decline in agricultural tokens. In 2024, DEX also had more pairs with high quality and high liquidity.
In the last two months of 2024, Uniswap achieved more than $90 billion in trading volumes, doubling activity compared to the third quarter. Net deposits grew to $7.25 billion, the highest level in the second half of the year, based on TokenTerminal facts.
One of the reasons for Uniswap’s growth is also Base, which offers much cheaper transactions. Overall, Uniswap’s volumes grew on both Ethereum and L2, increasing its overall score for all DEX.
Just checked the chain:
Monthly L2 volume on the Uniswap Protocol just hit a new all-time high
What a way to end the year 🦄 pic.twitter.com/TrygEaa2OS
— Uniswap Labs 🦄 (@Uniswap) December 30, 2024
During the year, most DEXs were in close competition with each other depending on the currently feasible trend. Solana’s activities with meme tokens and AI agents make Raydium and Jupiter part of the group top performersbut Ethereum retained older and highly liquid pairs against stablecoins.
Ethereum DEX was also key to the switch between Wrapped ETH (WETH) and stablecoin, which helped Uniswap V3 reaching nearly $1 billion in daily volumes.
Solana saw a migration of protocols in 2024
One of Solana’s first ideas was to compete with Ethereum, possibly with its own collection of apps. The past year has seen a migration of DEX and other protocols, leading to greater inflows of stablecoin liquidity.
After the FTX crash, Solana spent years without any significant apps and DeFi. As a sign of regained trust, Solana has drawn up various protocols. One of the most notable migrations that started in 2024 was Sky Protocol, formerly Maker DAO. Ondo Finance, one of the largest RWA tokenization protocols, also launched its app on Solana. Renzo Protocol also built its re-staking version on Solana, in collaboration with JitoSOL.
Solana also attracted bridged cbBTC, Coinbase’s packaged version of Bitcoin (BTC). Pudgy Penguins also chose Solana to launch its own token, PENGU. Simon’s Cat (CAT) also chose the network for its high-profile meme token.
The increased Solana activity relied on Raydium, while also utilizing Jupiter’s routing and optimization services. Solana trading remains heavily dependent on bots, providing over 86% of bot traffic.
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