After a Months-Long Wait, Ethereum Reclaims the No. 1 Spot as the Dominant DEX Chain, Surpassing Solana.

Ethereum Surpasses Solana as Leading DEX Platform Amid Market Weakness

In March 2025, Ethereum reclaimed its spot as the dominant blockchain for decentralized exchange (DEX) trading, overtaking Solana for the first time since September 2024. This shift in leadership comes as the cryptocurrency market faces a downturn, particularly impacting the memecoin sector, which had seen significant activity on Solana-based platforms.

According to data from DefiLama, Ethereum-based DEXs saw a total trading volume of $64.616 billion in March, 22% higher than Solana’s $52.62 billion. This marks the first time in several months that Ethereum has led the charge in DEX trading, with Solana now sitting in second place.

The change in market dynamics coincided with a broader crypto market pullback, with the total market capitalization shrinking by 4.2% to $2.63 trillion, extending the 20% loss observed in February. This decline has been attributed to various macroeconomic factors, including growing uncertainty and disappointment over the lack of significant Bitcoin purchases for the U.S. strategic reserve, which caused Bitcoin’s price to drop below $80,000.

As the market sentiment weakened, Solana’s once-thriving memecoin sector suffered. Raydium, Solana’s leading DEX, saw a stark decline in trading volume, failing to surpass $1 billion in any single day throughout March. This is a significant drop from its January 18 peak of $13 billion in daily volume, according to DefiLama data.

Additionally, activity on Solana-based memecoin launchpads decreased sharply, with daily volumes averaging less than $100 million in March, compared to a high of $390 million in mid-January. The debut of the TRUMP token in January had initially sparked a surge in Solana-based DEX volume, but this momentum quickly dissipated.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s resurgence was largely driven by the continued strength of Uniswap, which recorded over $30 billion in trading volume, while Fluid followed with a distant $9 billion. Despite this success, Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), suffered a significant 18% drop in value, falling to $1,822 in March. In comparison, Solana’s SOL token experienced a smaller 15.8% decline, according to TradingView and CoinDesk.

Industry analysts attribute Ether’s underperformance to its inflationary tokenomics and the rising popularity of Layer 2 solutions, which are seen as diverting trading activity away from the main Ethereum chain. These factors are believed to have put additional pressure on Ethereum’s price, even as its DEX trading volume continued to lead the market.

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