Original post by @stacy_muur , CuratedCrypt 0 member
Original translation: Rhythm Little Deep
Editors note: From January 2024 to March 2025, the transaction volume on the DeFi chain experienced a surge and decline, and the DEX transaction volume fell by 35% after reaching a peak of US$380 billion in January 2025. Solana native DEX has risen, occupying 5 of the top 10 seats, and Hyperliquid has more than 60% of the perpetual contract market. Head DEXs such as Uniswap and PancakeSwap dominate about 40% of the transaction volume, and the chain-level share fluctuates violently. Solana, Ethereum and Base show varying degrees of endurance, while CEX still accounts for nearly 80% of spot transactions. The future of DeFi depends on chains that can solidify user habits, rather than pure hype.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
Over the past 15 months, the DeFi liquidity landscape has been redrawn across chains, disappearing from hype-driven outliers and quietly concentrating where fundamentals matter more than noise.
TL;DR
DEX trading volume hit an all-time high of $380 billion in January 2025, before falling 35% in the following two months, suggesting that a short-term top may have occurred.
The top 10 DEXs now account for nearly 80% of activity; Uniswap and PancakeSwap alone account for about 40%.
Solana native DEX quietly took the top spot, with 5 of the top 10, and its share expanded due to the growth in trading volume driven by meme coins.
Hyperliquid has disrupted the perpetual contract landscape, jumping from a newcomer to a dominant share of over 60% by March 2025.
All insights are based on public data. Special thanks to DefiLlama for providing consistently high-quality statistics.
Cycles defined by surges and slowdowns
At the beginning of 2024, DEX trading volume was strong in March and May, followed by a slowdown in the middle of the year.
The situation reversed dramatically in the fourth quarter, with transaction volumes surging in November and December, continuing until it reached an explosive peak of $380 billion in January 2025.
But the surge was short-lived. By February, trading volumes had fallen to $245 billion, a 35% drop, ending a three-month vertical climb. The pullback set the tone for a more cautious second quarter.
DEX dominance: The top holds the power
The DEX landscape is still highly concentrated. The top 10 protocols now account for 79.5% of daily trading volume, and the top 5 alone control 59.1%.
Uniswap and PancakeSwap account for about 40% of all DEX trading volume and are the only two protocols with cumulative trading volume exceeding one trillion US dollars. Their dominance is based on first-mover advantage, multi-chain coverage, and deep liquidity.
Uniswap Labs also launched Unichain, a dedicated Ethereum L2 based on the Optimism Superchain, designed to provide fast, low-cost transactions with native multi-chain interoperability.
The Quiet Rise of Solana
Solana’s rise is remarkable. 5 of the top 10 DEXs are Solana native: @orca_so, @MeteoraAG, @RaydiumProtocol, @Lifinity_IO, @pumpdotfun.
Orca (8.02%) and Meteora (6.70%) alone contribute approximately 15% of global DEX activity.
This rise is due to low fees, fast block times, and the sticky flow of Solana’s meme coin culture. Pump.fun’s entry into the top 10 is a clear reflection of this energy.
Emerging protocols: Fluid and Aerodrome
@0x fluid (7.09%) is the most capital efficient DEX in the top 5. Active on Ethereum with over $10 billion in monthly volume. Its launch on Arbitrum increased volume from $426 million in February to $1.6 billion in March, showing rapid adoption.
@AerodromeFi, based on Base, reflects the growth of liquidity on Base L2.
Although Hyperliquid does not rank high in spot trading, it dominates the perpetual contract market with over 60% market share.
DEX market share by chain: Momentum is easy to gain, but retention is rare
The past 15 months have shown that most chains attract attention, but few retain users. From January 2024 to March 2025, the share of chain-level DEXs changed rapidly, with only a few maintaining real traction.
Solana performed the best. It climbed steadily in 2024, peaking at 45.8% in January 2025 due to the $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoin craze. But by March, its share had halved to 21.5%. Despite this, its average share of 25.1% is still the highest in the entire chain.
Ethereum has shown the opposite trend. At the beginning of 2024, it accounted for about 32% of the market share, fell to 15.3% in January 2025, and rebounded to 26.4% by March, proving that its staying power still exists even after losing momentum.
Base is the most consistent climber. It increased from 3% in March 2024 to 12.4% in December, and stabilized at 7.4% in March 2025, averaging 6.6% during the period. No hype, just slow, sticky growth.
The BNB chain maintains an average share of 14.7%, and has always been stable, with no surges or crashes, and is maintained only by retail traffic without any breakthrough moments.
Arbitrum started off strong with 16% but never took off. By January 2025 it had slipped to 4.8%, surpassed by Base and Solana.
Blast peaked at 42.3% in June 2024 and disappeared the following month—typical incentive-driven volume with no retention.
Conclusion: Chain-level DEX dominance fluctuates wildly. Solana surges, Ethereum recovers, Base slowly gains ground, and hype cycles quickly die down. The chains that stick around aren’t the loudest, but the most used.
CEX still dominates spot trading volume
Despite the explosion of DEXs in early 2025, centralized exchanges (CEXs) continue to dominate the spot market. Even at the DEX peak in January, CEXs still retained nearly 80% of total trading volume.
While CEX dominance has fallen from 90% at the beginning of 2024 to a low of 79%, the overall pattern is clear: DEXs are growing, but CEXs remain the default venue for most traders.
Perpetual Contract Agreement Market Share
In 2024, the on-chain perpetual contract landscape will be reversed.
After dYdX held the top spot for more than two years, Hyperliquid rose to redefine dominance. It first took the lead in February, briefly lost to @SynFuturesDefi in the middle of the year, and regained the top spot in August and has remained there ever since. By March 2025, Hyperliquid accounted for nearly 59% of perpetual contract trading volume, establishing itself as the preferred venue for professional traders.
This rise gained attention with products close to the CEX experience. In contrast, dYdX declined rapidly. From a 13.2% share at the beginning of 2024 to 2.7% in March 2025, users turned to faster, simpler, and more modern alternatives.
@JupiterExchange perpetual contracts took a different path, climbing to second place with 8.8% share thanks to Solana native liquidity and spot DEX funnel. It expanded rapidly but leveled off after Hyperliquid. Others such as SynFutures, @Vertex_Protocol and @ParadexApp briefly showed traction.
Perpetual Contract Chain: The execution layer is rewritten within one cycle
The biggest shift in perpetual swap infrastructure over the past year has not been which protocol users prefer, but which chains they trust to execute.
In January 2024, Ethereum and Arbitrum control over 65% of perpetual swap volume. But by March 2025, this drops to just 11.8%, replaced by newer, faster execution layers.
Leading the shift is Hyperliquid’s custom chain, which grew from 13.6% to 58.9% share over the same period. In less than a year, it has become the default perpetual contract execution environment, replacing the L1 and L2 that once defined the category. Not only is it faster, it also provides the high reliability and low latency that professional traders require.
Solana also performed strongly, rising to nearly 16% by the end of 2024 with Jupiter and Phoenix, but eventually stabilized at 10-11%, failing to maintain breakout momentum. Base and ZKsync showed signs of life, peaking at around 6-7%, but have yet to make it to the top.
Meanwhile, Blast became a cautionary tale: reaching a one-month miracle of 18.8% in June 2024, it quickly vanished. In a space driven by product quality and user retention, hype failed to last. The new execution stack is clear — performance-first chains have reset the standard, and traditional infrastructure is no longer the default choice.
The future of DeFi does not lie in the number of chains, but in the solidification of narratives into user habits.
