Solana has taken the DEX market by storm, nearly commandeering half of the sector’s total volume. This rocket rise has been largely fueled by the tremendous success of Pump.fun, one of the most recent memecoin launchpads.
The trading volume of Pump.fun has recently surpassed that of Ethereum, making it one of the most influential forces in the decentralized trading space today. According to data from OKX, Pump.fun is now reshaping the volume landscape of decentralized trading and influencing the development of trading apparatuses built atop the Solana blockchain.
Pump.fun’s Unstoppable Momentum and Its Most Prolific Creator
Pump.fun has seen a growth that can only be described as meteoric. This platform has enabled what seems like an unending flurry of new tokens, with one wallet in particular being the most notable. The owner of this wallet has been on a ridiculous six-month-long streak, waking up each day and laboring over a non-stop token launch for what averages out to about 18 tokens each hour, before “punching out” for the night. In this way, the token creation clock has now ticked its way to an estimated 18,000 tokens.
The strategy seems to have worked out very nicely. This person took advantage of the platform’s memecoin frenzy and pulled in an estimated $3.7 million in profit, demonstrating that there is real serious money to be made in the blazing world of Solana-based token launches. The volume of tokens being assembled and disassembled has helped propel Solana to a commanding position in the DEX ecosystem.
Massive SOL Transfers Indicate Heavy Profit-Taking
With such swift activity comes significant capital movement, and recent blockchain data shows some astonishing transactions. Just 12 hours ago, an incredible 98,000 SOL was moved from Pump.fun to Kraken, amounting to $22.36 million at an average price of $228 per SOL. This is just the latest in a series of sizable transfers.
In the last month, the fee address linked to Pump.fun has sent back an astonishing 880,876 SOL to exchanges, returning funds at an average price of $206 per SOL. This contrasts starkly with the trading activity of Solana’s native token, which has managed to dodge the bear market that has gripped much of the rest of the crypto market. All this suggests that someone really wants to keep making Solana and its native token part of the conversation in the memecoin era.
A Bold Move: 200,000 SOL Staked in One Transaction
Although some traders are selling off their holdings, other traders are undeterred and are plowing even more money into Solana’s future. One individual, for instance, recently staked an enormous 200,000 SOL, which at the time was worth about $45 million, into Marinade Finance, a top-tier liquid staking protocol on Solana. To put this in perspective, Marinade itself has a total value locked (TVL) of about $360 million and manages half of all the staked SOL on the Solana blockchain.
This staker is projected to accumulate an additional 25,000 SOL by next January, with the current yield. At today’s prices, that’s an extra $5.6 million by next January, simply for helping secure the Solana network. And you know what’s interesting about this stake? That hi-stake investment underscores the growing confidence we see nowadays in Solana’s ecosystem. Major crypto market players aren’t just finding opportunities in wonderous meme coin trading anymore; they’re putting serious capital to work in Solana.
The Bigger Picture: Solana’s Growing Influence
Solana’s recent jump is not merely memecoin driven—though Pump.fun has certainly helped. The network’s rapid transaction speeds and low costs have made it a new favorite for all kinds of traders and at least some long-term investors, serving as an alternative to Ethereum. And Solana has done better than just tread water in this liquid space: It has captured and held a clear DEX market share, something that would have seemed highly improbable to forecast just a year ago.
The capital pouring in—by way of both token trading and staking—might well be seen as an early marker of a real Solana comeback. Unlike the moment when Solana was trading dominantly in the summer of 2021, today the network actually appears to be U.S. sanctions-geared, with a yield-making lifeline to participants who either want to make money indefinitely in return for locking up their assets or who are looking every bit like Solana traders.
The continued mania for memecoins and increasing institutional interest make the next few months very important for Solana. It is riding a wave; will it keep that wave going and expand its growing dominance? Or will a new contender rise up and challenge Solana’s current position in the crypto space? Whatever happens next, one thing is extremely clear: Solana is not just an alternative to Ethereum. It is rising up and becoming a major player in the crypto space.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any Metaverse crypto coins.