Solana rides PumpSwap and Meteora activity surge to retain DEX spot trading lead

Solana remains the leading venue for DEX activity, surpassing other chains and some centralized exchanges. Activity in the past month got a boost from Meteora, as well as PumpSwap trading. 

Solana is still carrying the biggest share of spot DEX volumes, at around 20% of total activity. The network is far from its peak activity during the 2021 boom, but keeps up a stable baseline level. 

Top Solana DEXs have also surpassed most centralized exchanges, including Bybit. Solana is now engaged in a new competition, where the top 5 chains are fighting to secure token volumes, as well as tokenized security trading. 

One of the boosts from Solana comes from the constant inflow of stablecoins, from both major issuers and smaller projects. In the past day, another $300M in USDC liquidity was injected into the network. 

Solana gas fees now paid by MetaMask

The highly active spot trading on Solana was also a venue for retail activity. For new traders, owning SOL tokens is not always a given. 

MetaMask, one of the most widely used wallets, announced a new gas fee program. The wallet will cover gas fees for swaps above $200. 

SOL-less? we gotchu covered. 💜

MetaMask will now pay the gas fee for you on Solana swaps over $200. pic.twitter.com/qOOWPeslHs

— MetaMask 🦊 (@MetaMask) July 21, 2026

Overall, Solana managed to control failed transactions to around 23%, meaning retail swaps can still come through. Other consumer-facing apps are also facilitating spot trading, including Jupiter’s routing and tools within the Phantom wallet. 

As a result, Solana is more accessible for newcomers compared to the competing Ethereum and BNB Chain ecosystems. 

Solana also achieved an average fee of $0.19 for DEX trades, making it a predictable and accessible platform. 

Solana competes with centralized markets

Solana activity is still far below traditional markets, but is already showing up on the comparison radar. The platform gets its major volumes from stablecoin swaps as well as tokenized securities in the form of XYZStocks. 

In 2026 to date, Solana DEX spot trading has consistently surpassed the volumes of the NYSE American. 

Solana weekly volumes reached $10.29B, compared to around $6B weekly for the NYSE American. Currently, spot volumes on Ethereum and BNB Chain hover at $6.7B and $5.8B. 

The recent success of Solana is a mix of PumpSwap tokens, the main source of new assets, and the trading of tokenized equities. 

Tokenized assets on Solana are at over $5.77B in Q2, up by 114% in the past quarter. Solana tokenized equities have been rising for six consecutive quarters, with 84% of RWA assets concentrated on equities markets. 

The rapid growth of spot trading is also a sign that crypto activity is evolving, despite the outflow of spot trading on other markets. As of June 23, tokenized asset trading on Solana flipped meme tokens as the main use case. Solana has also shown it can become a settlement layer for institutional traders and whales. 

Tokenized equities on Solana are also moving into the lending markets, with a weekly record of $51.9M in collateral. Over $31M are locked on Kamino, and $20M on Jupiter’s lending platform.

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