Solana outperforms Ethereum in a key metric for 3 months in a row

Solana continued to do well in December, as meme coins helped it gain market share against ethereum and other blockchains.

According DeFi CallSolana (SOL) protocols in the decentralized exchange industry were the most active in December.

Its volume amounted to more than 97 billion dollars, well above the 22.6 billion dollars it managed in the same period last year.

Notably, it was the third consecutive month that Solana outperformed ethereum (eth), which has dominated the industry for years. ethereum protocols had a volume of over $74 billion, while Base and Arbitrum handled $42 billion and $37 billion.

Solana also had an excellent performance in November, where its DEX networks had a volume of $129 billion, higher than ethereum's $70.6 billion. A month earlier, Solana handled a volume of $52 billion, while ethereum processed $41 billion.

Most of Solana's DEX volume was due to Raydium (RAY), a network that handled $65 billion worth of coins in the last 30 days. Orca handled $24 billion, while Lifinity, Pump and Phoenix had volumes worth more than $5.93 billion.

Solana DEX volume has increased due to meme coin industry, which has continued to perform well this year. Solana has attracted thousands of meme coins this year, helped by the creation of Pump, the largest token generator. All Solana meme coins have a market capitalization of more than $14.1 billionled by Bonk, Dogwifhat, Popcat and Peanut the Squirrel.

This growth has been very profitable for Solana and its native applications. All of Solana's native dApps generated a record $365 million in revenue in November. Similarly, according to TokenTerminal, the Solana blockchain generated a record $725 million in fees in 2024, making it the third most profitable chain after ethereum and Tron.

Developers and users love Solana for its substantially lower fees and higher performance.

Base, the layer 2 network launched by Coinbase, has also been a big star in 2024, as its total fees rose to over $82 million. It has become the largest Layer 2 network in the blockchain industry, with its DEX networks handling over $181 billion in assets, while its total value locked soared to $2 billion.