Solana Leads DEX Trading Volume as Layer-2 Solutions and Emerging Chains Reform the DeFi Landscape

DeFi is experiencing exponential growth and new users have been coming into the ecosystem since February 2026. Ethereum remains a dominant force, though it’s currently running at peak capacity. Meanwhile, Solana’s new decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have started to carve out a significant portion of the market, largely because of their rapid transaction speeds and low fees.

Solana’s Meteoric Rise to the Top

Solana is now generating a monthly currency trading volume greater than $110 billion. It is anticipated that there are 46.9 million active Solana users, which is far greater than the other leading competitors. This rapid growth in Solana’s trading volume has been driven primarily by the network’s ability to process a very high number of transactions and by the continued expansion of its ecosystem.

With Solana’s success primarily due to the ability to execute trades instantly on its platform, Solana is currently expanding rapidly as an ecosystem for all types of financial products. Now that there is an increase in transaction volume across the entire blockchain, Solana has become the premier destination for developing meme coin projects as well as advanced decentralized financial applications.

The Ethereum Ecosystem and the Layer-2 Surge

Ethereum has $64.5 billion in trade volume and generates $19.2 million a month from fees making it one of the most significant parts of blockchain technology. Understanding the number of L-2 solutions like Base will help us to understand future growth as it has fragmented liquidity through many different L-2 applications. For example, base has produced $24.8 billion in trading volume while Arbitrum has produced $17.6 billion.

While L-2 solutions have delivered on their long-standing commitment to Etheruem scalability; they also show us the competitive nature of getting “sticky” liquidity. The migration of users from L-1s like Ethereum to faster environments using L2 will continue to drive up competition between Optimistic Rollups and ZK-Rollups throughout 2026.

Emerging Contenders – Hyperliquid and Sui

Hyperliquid and Sui are revealed as amazing additions to the elite category hyper liquidity. Hyperliquid has carved out a niche as a decentralized perpetual trading platform, processing roughly $11.9 billion in total trading volume with fewer than 312,400 users. This suggests it is heavily favored by professional traders and whales who execute high-volume trades using its order-book model.

Additionally, Sui and Aptos are two examples of how the “Move” language ecosystem is evolving in its reach and impact. Sui has achieved a remarkable volume of $5.2 billion in volume and continues to demonstrate how non-EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) chains have developed substantial adoption through their distinct architectural advantages. Recent DEX volume tracking by DeFiLlama shows that unique architectures have collectively driven an increase in the number of DeFi users. As seen through the multi-chain and interoperable nature of these platforms, the future of DeFi will likely be multi-chain and interoperable as well.

Conclusion

The February 2026 DEX volume report illustrates the vibration and competitive nature of the market today. With Solana’s rise to the top, its ability to scale rapidly alongside providing great user experience has shown that these two factors are the final determinants of where a market will dominate.

As Layer-2 innovations continue their rapid development such as Hyperliquid, the DeFi ecosystem is currently changing as it’s creating new ways in how organized markets can be carried out on blockchain networks. The newly changing forms of DeFi are expected to continue giving rise to new opportunities for both developers and investors. This will provide clarity on the enduring question of liquidity’s location and identify the chains that present the most robust ecosystems for sustainable growth in the future.