Solana overtakes Ethereum in DEX volume as retail activity and low fees drive network growth

Solana has cemented its status as a formidable contender to Ethereum, and it’s not just because of the memecoin traffic it processes. 

According to data from Defillama, the network processed $920 million in 24-hour DEX spot volume as of April 6, while its rival, Ethereum, trailed behind with $563.47 million. 

The figures confirm that lead is no fluke, especially as it persists across longer time frames. For example, over the past seven days, Solana DEX spot volume was $11.49 billion, and over the last 30 days, it was $51.54 billion. In comparison, Ethereum DEX spot volume over seven days was $7.62 billion and $36.55 billion over the past 30 days. 

The other networks in the top five are Base, BSC, and Polygon. Despite relatively lower activity levels compared to January 2025 highs, none of the competition seems able to shake what is starting to look like a DEX trading activity duopoly between Solana and Ethereum. 

Solana’s recent DeFi activity 

Market watchers credit the dominance to retail momentum. Ethereum was in the same position in the past, but now that the Ethereum Foundation and the network’s founder have shifted their sights to bigger things like becoming the financial rail for the marriage of TradFi and Web3, Solana seems to have succeeded in consolidating the majority of DEX volume among daily users who want cheap fees and high throughput.

Ethereum still boasts relatively deeper liquidity pools, but that is clearly no match for Solana’s speed and cost advantages, which prioritize execution. 

Solana is not only winning in DeFi

While it continues to lead Ethereum in DeFi activity, Solana is also making very obvious progress in another segment Ethereum has long dominated — RWA tokenization. 

According to recent figures, Solana’s tokenized RWAs, with the exception of stablecoins, are now over $2 billion in market value, marking about a 10x growth over the past year, driven mostly by tokenized equities. 

Reports claim monthly transfer volume for tokenized funds, stocks, and commodities on Solana is up 10x year-over-year, and holder count for these assets surged 440% year-on-year to 218,000 addresses.  

Retail interest has surged, and institutional products continue to emerge, attracting more capital and boosting overall trust in the network. According to Token Terminal, Solana currently hosts nine of the ten most held tokenized stock deployments. 

Ethereum’s RWA market lead faces competitive pressure 

Solana’s slice of the active RWA market capitalization has grown meaningfully, but Ethereum still commands about 61% of the tokenized asset market and $206 billion in annual settled volume, all that with a 40% YoY growth rate that continues to make it an attractive choice for institutional players. 

These institutional entities have always been predominantly Ethereum-centric. However, they have been allocating more resources to Solana due to its speed and distribution advantages for tokenizing stocks and funds. 

Issuers in the RWA sector are increasingly choosing Solana for those same reasons, as well as its active user base and low-friction on-chain ecosystem. 

Despite all this, experts believe it will take much more to displace the space Ethereum has carved out in large-scale institutional tokenization. Even Token Terminal admits Ethereum’s current use case is centered around stablecoin settlement and real-world asset tokenization. 

Still, Solana’s threat to the network’s dominance continues to grow. As of April 2026, Solana has become home not only to high-frequency trading but also to tokenized RWAs, and experts think it is now a truly worthy rival to Ethereum.

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