DEX traffic grew in 2024, with some chains reporting new records almost weekly. However, some of the traffic is for low-value swaps and is considered potentially a gimmick to boost metrics.
Not all DEX attract quality traffic, a recent Dune board revealed. When filtered for low-quality transactions under $0.10, the results for Solana and Base have the biggest visible difference.
On-chain researchers showed Solana and Base had the biggest DEX traffic growth, but posted a significant difference when filtering out for low-value transactions. Those transactions make a small part of DEX traffic, but boost the numbers on activity levels, creating the illusion of mass adoption.
Transactions and use cases for L1 and L2 chains remain stratified, with a different use case and culture for each network. Raydium remains the DEX with the highest market share on Solana, bringing in its share of low-value trades linked to newly launched meme tokens.
Base currently hosts 1.2M daily active users, while Solana reports 5.5M active wallets. A big part of those chain’s activities are DEX swaps, reflecting demand for risky investments. The other source of high traffic may come from connected wallets or teams, which create wash trading activity for meme tokens. Such wallet clusters raise traffic with microtransactions.
Base aims for an image of on-chain fun, instead of an outright meme token casino with a real risk of loss. The chain focuses on fun and microtransactions, including those with Circle (USDC). Yet even with that profile, there are doubts that all the Base traffic is entirely organic.
Base has been growing its throughput and gas price, aiming to differentiate itself from other L2 chains. The recent rise in activity and gas fees looks less organic than other L2 chains.
Low-value transactions skew DEX traffic to Base and Solana
Low-value transactions are not only due to small-scale token trades or meme token activity. Some of the traffic is considered non-organic and a tool to boost the chain’s metrics. It is not always possible to differentiate between low-value bets, micropayments, and non-organic traffic.
For Solana and Base, the normalized high-traffic metrics put the chains in perspective, showing the scope of their real growth. Solana retains its leading position in swaps from $100 to $5,000, whereas Base has a thinner market share.
On the positive side, Solana’s traffic in October is tied to heightened interest and may reflect organic activity. Solana trades still use bots for speed and efficiency but is linked to real users seeking the next winning token.
While Ethereum has been passed over for high-frequency trades and some meme tokens, its network still carries the biggest transaction value, with the biggest share of trades above $50,000. Ethereum still makes more than 34% of all EVM-compatible DEX chains, including Base. DEX are still mostly used for medium, high, and hyper-value trades, as those markets are usually reserved for more experienced crypto users.
DEXs continue to grow their weight in crypto trades
Despite the potential for low-value traffic, DEXs are still growing their influence on the crypto space. As meme tokens replace altcoins for speculation and community potential, DEX volume gains a bigger share from centralized exchanges. Decentralized to centralized volume reached a peak ratio in October, after a rising trend in 2024.
The successful month led to more than $118B in DEX monthly trades, surpassing the September activity. October’s results still lag behind the same month in 2021, when near the peak of the bull market DEX saw more than $170B in trades.
DEX activity still includes bot wars, where Solana is still the leader with 77% of bot-driven traffic. Ethereum makes up around 18% of bot traffic, while Base brings in around 5% of bot activity. DEX are also differentiating in terms of high traffic or high value, depending on the type of market and the liquidity depth.
One of the sources of peak Base activity are the targeted liquidity pairs on Aerodrome. Those pairs invite high-volume traffic due to the available deep liquidity in a certain price range. Recently, Aerodrome completed $5B in trading volumes within one epoch, extending its growth trend from the past few months.
