For the First Time Since September, Ethereum Regains the No. 1 Rank as the Top DEX Chain, Overtaking Solana.

Ethereum Surpasses Solana as Leading DEX Platform Amid Market Decline

In March 2025, Ethereum reclaimed its position as the top blockchain for decentralized exchange (DEX) trading, surpassing Solana for the first time since September. This shift in leadership occurred against a backdrop of bearish market sentiment, which particularly impacted Solana’s memecoin sector.

Ethereum-based DEXs saw a total trading volume of $64.616 billion in March, outperforming Solana’s $52.62 billion by 22%, according to DefiLama data. This marks Ethereum’s first return to the top spot since September, with Solana now relegated to second place.

This leadership change comes amid a broader downturn in the crypto market. The total market cap fell by 4.2% to $2.63 trillion, continuing the trend from February, which saw a 20% drop. Contributing factors include macroeconomic uncertainties and disappointment over the lack of new Bitcoin purchases in the U.S. Strategic Reserve, leading to a dip in Bitcoin’s price below $80,000.

The decline in market sentiment significantly impacted the memecoin sector. Solana’s Raydium, a major DEX that saw a surge in meme trading in late 2024, recorded no days with trading volumes exceeding $1 billion in March. This is a sharp contrast to its record high of $13 billion on January 18, as reported by DefiLama.

In addition, trading volumes on Solana’s memecoin launch pads dropped sharply, averaging less than $100 million per day in March, down from a peak of $390 million in mid-January. The high point for Solana-based DEXs was the launch of the TRUMP token in January, which spurred significant activity.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s surge in DEX trading volume was largely driven by Uniswap, which registered over $30 billion in trading activity, while Fluid followed in second place with $9 billion.

However, despite Ethereum’s strong showing in the DEX space, its native ether (ETH) token experienced a significant drop of over 18%, falling to $1,822 in March. In comparison, Solana’s SOL token saw a smaller decline of 15.8%, according to data from TradingView and CoinDesk. Analysts suggest that ether’s disappointing performance is due to its inflationary tokenomics and the increasing adoption of Layer 2 solutions, which are diverting some activity away from Ethereum’s main chain.