Memecoin Mania Drives Record Monthly DEX Volume

The current memecoin frenzy has sent monthly DEX volumes to new heights.

Decentralized exchanges have hosted a record $354.15 billion worth of trades in November so far, according to DeFi Llama.

Solana accounts for 35.4% of the total with an all-time high of $125.5 billion, followed by Ethereum with $66.7 billion, Base with $41.8 billion, BNB Chain with $33.6 billion, and Arbitrum with $32.1 billion. DEX volumes on Layer 2s are also at new highs, driven by unprecedented activity on Base and Arbitrum.

The combined monthly milestone beats out the previous record of $291.7 billion from November 2021 by 21.4%. Back then, BNB Chain was the market leader with $130.75 billion, followed by Ethereum with nearly $108 billion, and Avalanche with $19.1 billion.

The past two weeks also comprised two of the three strongest on record, with DEXes driving $102.7 billion for the week starting on Nov. 10, and $103.1 billion for the week beginning Nov. 17. The week starting June 2 hosted record weekly DEX activity of $106.85 billion amid a brief spike of activity on the Blast Layer 2 network, with the chain hosting $70 billion worth of trades.

While Solana currently dominates the sector with a market share of 35.4%, Ethereum’s broader ecosystem accounts for a larger combined slice of the pie.

Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum make up 39.7% of the market, with Polygon, and Optimism bringing the total to nearly 43.5%.

Memecoins propel Raydium adoption

Memecoins successfully funded through PumpFun, the booming Solana-based token launchpad, are automatically listed on Raydium. With Solana’s memecoin trading frenzy in full swing, Raydium has recently emerged as the largest single DEX deployment by volume.

Raydium has hosted a record $78.5 billion worth of trades during November so far, smashing October’s previous high of nearly $30.4 billion by 158%.

Uniswap’s Ethereum deployment came in second with $48.6 billion, followed by PancakeSwap on BNB Chain with $28.6 billion, Aerodrome on Base with $21.6 billion, Orca on Solana with $21.2 billion, Uniswap on Arbitrum $19.3 billion, and Uniswap on Base with $12.8 billion.