Solana Decentralized Finance Ecosystem Fully Recovers: Analysis of Project Performance in Various Fields

Recently, the overall Solana ecosystem has shown strong growth momentum, driven by MEME coins and DePIN projects, with the price of SOL briefly approaching 100 USD. Meanwhile, the trading volume of a certain trading platform briefly surpassed that of Ethereum, sparking heated discussions in the market. Against this backdrop, it is essential for us to delve into the current development status of various DeFi sectors within Solana.

Liquidity Staking Projects Leading Growth

Liquid staking has become an important growth point in the Solana ecosystem. Staking locked funds is conducive to the rise of SOL prices, while various liquid staking tokens (LST) have broad application prospects in other Decentralized Finance projects. According to data platforms, as of December 22, Marinade Finance and Jito's TVL reached $1.05 billion and $626 million respectively, ranking as the top two in the Solana ecosystem's TVL.

Although the amount of Marinade's staked funds in USD is only 57% of its historical high, the number of staked SOL (11.15 million SOL) has reached a new high. Jito has gained widespread support with its MEV infrastructure and successful airdrop activities. As the application of JitoSOL in DeFi projects spreads, the amount of Jito's staking has rapidly increased, currently reaching 6.42 million SOL.

Significant Increase in DEX Trading Volume

In the decentralized exchange (DEX) space, Raydium and Orca remain major players. Both have developed centralized liquidity features based on the original foundations, but their market positions have changed. Although liquidity still lags behind historical highs, recent trading volume has been impressive.

Data shows that the total 24-hour trading volume of major DEXs on Solana is $1.55 billion, surpassing the $1.18 billion of major DEXs on Ethereum. Notably, the capital utilization rate of DEXs on Solana is much higher than that on Ethereum. For example, the trading volume/TVL ratios for Raydium and Orca are 4.81 and 2.87 respectively, while this metric for major DEXs on Ethereum is generally below 0.3. This means that the potential returns for providing liquidity on Solana are greater, which may attract more funds.

New and Old Replacements in the Lending Market

The decentralized lending sector has undergone significant changes. Among the former major players, only Solend still maintains a high ranking, but it has been surpassed by emerging projects. Solend's TVL has dropped from a historical high of $910 million to $187 million, while the TVLs of emerging projects marginfi and Kamino have reached $348 million and $204 million, respectively, and are growing rapidly.

These new projects have not yet issued governance tokens, but have introduced a points incentive mechanism that has attracted a large amount of funds. Stimulated by various airdrop activities, along with the support of LST on these platforms, the lending market is showing new vitality.

The perpetual contract market is steadily developing

Compared to perpetual contract projects on Ethereum Layer 2, Solana's performance in this field is not outstanding, but it still shows stable growth. Drift adopts an order book trading model similar to dYdX, with a TVL reaching a new high of $105 million. Jupiter's JLP also performed well, with a 24-hour SOL-PERP trading volume of $101 million.

Other fields perform mediocre.

The yield aggregator and decentralized stablecoin sectors have not shown outstanding performance. The once highly regarded yield aggregator project Sunny saw its TVL drop from a historical high of $3.4 billion to $4.02 million. Stablecoin projects such as UXD Protocol and Parrot Protocol have also failed to maintain a high TVL level.

Summary

The Solana DeFi ecosystem is showing an unbalanced development trend. Liquid staking, DEX, and emerging lending platforms are performing well, while the perpetual contract market is steadily growing, and yield aggregators and stablecoin projects are relatively quiet. This pattern reflects changes in market demand and shifts in investor preferences, and it also points out the direction for the future development of the Solana ecosystem.