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Solana has surpassed Ethereum to get to the number one smart-contract blockchain as ranked by trading volume.
According to data from DeFiLlama, reported by Fortune on March 21, the volume of tokens trading on Solana-based decentralized exchanges (DEXs) climbed by 67% to reach $21.3 billion over seven days. In comparison, volume on Ethereum-based equivalent exchanges rose by just 3% to just $19.4 billion, leaving a $1.9 billion.
The number of daily active addresses on Solana has also risen dramatically, climbing from 400,000 to 600,000 between January and February and hitting roughly 1.25 million on Tuesday.
Solana and meme-based surges
The recent surge is believed to be connected to early frenzies around SOL-based meme coins dogwifwhat (WIF), bonk (BONK), book of meme (BOME), MAGA (TRUMP), and slerf (SLERF). On March 13, 2,300 Solana meme coins were minted in just one hour, while stablecoins on Solana reached a multiyear high of $2.80 billion.
The trend of presales, where tokens are sold before officially launching, has likely been a huge help to Solana as well. This means that buyers are parting ways with their funds in exchange for a set number of tokens later on, once the official launch has taken place. Fortune estimates that over $100 million worth of tokens were sent as part of various memecoin presales over the weekend, mainly on the Solana blockchain. As a result, those presales have enabled the platform to supplant Ethereum in terms of trading volume.
This isn’t the first time that Solana has experienced a meme-based surge. Its price neared $100 at the end of last year following a frenzy of meme coin activity. At the time, trading volumes and network fees surpassed Ethereum for the first time, paving the way for Solana to take its place as the top smart-contract blockchain by trading volume today.
It’s not all been wins for Solana, however. Just a few days before, Slerf’s creator accidentally destroyed more than $10 million of tokens before the launch even took place. Nonetheless, it didn’t stop Slerf from shooting to a market capitalization of $500 million within just a few hours, before falling again.
Featured image: Ideogram
