Spot trading was once dominated by centralized exchanges. The landscape changed rapidly as DEX adoption gained momentum.
According to DefiLlama, total DEX across all chains reached a record high of $1.34 trillion in the second quarter of 2025, with Solana accounting for more than 25% of the total. This milestone further strengthens Solana’s position as a leading chain for on-chain spot trading activities.
Looking at the breakdown by chain, Solana remains at the top of the rankings. As the graph below shows, Solana’s monthly DEX trading volume has recently increased to nearly $50 billion compared to Ethereum’s approximately $35 billion.
This gap clearly highlights Solana’s growing dominance in on-chain trading due to strong user activity, abundant liquidity, and sustained demand across the DeFi ecosystem.
Naturally, the focus returns to Solana ($SOL) DeFi setup.
Here too, the trend remains constructive. tether’s $USDT Solana supply expanded by more than 16%; $USDT Ethereum shrunk by more than 3% during the same period.
As the largest stablecoin by market capitalization and an important source of on-chain liquidity, $USDT Solana’s balance suggests that new capital continues to flow into the ecosystem.
That liquidity supports higher trading volumes, deeper liquidity pools, and stronger DeFi activity, strengthening global growth. $SOL’s DEX volume has increased, further solidifying its lead in on-chain spot trading.
What about take-home? DEX volume may not be the only metric. $SOL have the upper hand.
Solana enhances liquidity management for CEX trading
For Solana, leading the market in on-chain DEX volume is nothing new.
What stands out is its recent push into spot trading activity. Layer 1 networks have recently surpassed several major centralized exchanges in transaction volume, adding another layer to their growing market presence.
The logic is simple. While DEX dominance has been part of the Solana story for some time, volume at centralized venues is often seen as a broader measure of market demand and liquidity.
As the graph below shows, Solana continues to compete with tier 1 centralized exchanges, outpacing Coinbase and Kraken in both daily and weekly spot trading volume, trailing only Binance and Bybit.
Essentially, $SOLThe strength of trading indicates an increase in overall market participation.
On the DEX side, the story remains the same. Solana continues to dominate on-chain trading activity and consistently ranks higher than competing chains.
Combined with the recent gains for the big CEXs, the conclusion is pretty simple. More trading activity is flowing through the Solana ecosystem, highlighting the strength of its DeFi stack.
If this trend continues, trading activity could be the primary driver of Solana’s momentum in the third quarter.
Final summary
- $SOL We are seeing strong trading activity on both DEX and CEX, indicating increased liquidity.
- Increased trading volumes and stablecoin inflows suggest DeFi strength will increase heading into the third quarter.
