In December, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) saw their trade volumes reach a record-breaking $462 billion, as per data provided by decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, DefiLlama. This impressive surge sealed December as the highest-performing month for DEX volumes thus far, maintaining momentum carried over from November’s substantial performance.
In the preceding month’s context, aggregate DeFi trading volumes were reported at $374 billion. This significant increase was attributed to expectations of a friendlier regulatory framework in the US after Donald Trump’s presidential election win.
Examining the leading decentralized exchanges by trading volume, Uniswap topped the chart with an impressive $106.4 billion in the last 30 days. Closely following was PancakeSwap in second place, boasting a monthly trading volume of $96.4 billion. Raydium, Solana’s largest DEX, clinched third place with a 30-day trading volume of $58 billion.
The latter’s surge aligns with a significant increase in revenues for Solana’s decentralized applications (DApps) in November. Research platform Syndica reported that these Solana-based DApps recorded a whopping $365 million in revenue during this timeframe, largely propelled by memecoins launched on Solana memecoin launchpad, Pump.fun.
Notwithstanding record-breaking DeFi trading volumes, the memecoin market, conversely, underwent a significant correction in December. CoinMarketCap data reveals that while the memecoin market cap initially surged at December’s outset, it subsequently experienced a decline. From a peak market capitalization of $137 billion on Dec. 9, the total market cap for meme-based tokens plummeted by $45 billion to $92 billion on Dec. 23. As of writing, memecoins’ total market capitalization stood at $95 billion, a 20% drop in comparison to the figure reported on Dec. 1. This early December surge is likely attributable to a spike in interest stemming from U.S.-based trading platforms listing memecoins and Pepe hitting an all-time high.