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Solana, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has emerged as a standout performer in the first quarter.
On-chain analytics firm Messari released an insightful Q1 report detailing this growth. Per Messari's "State of Solana Q1 2024," Solana's average daily spot DEX volume skyrocketed by an astonishing 319% to $1.5 billion over the last quarter as DeFi volume grew.
Meme coin trading accounted for the majority of the increase in DEX volumes. During the first quarter of the year, Solana saw an increase in activity across its ecosystem, leading to new project launches and increased developer interest.
Following major SOL and stablecoin pairs, SLERF-SOL and WIF-SOL had the fourth and fifth-highest token pair trading volume in Q1. The SLERF and BOME trading pair was the seventh-highest in terms of volume. Other meme coins in the top 15 by trading volume were BONK and WEN.
Telegram bots have emerged as a popular trading arena for retail consumers, with Solana Telegram bot's average daily active addresses jumping by 573% quarter-on-quarter to 45,000. Telegram bots accounted for around 5% of total quarterly volume, a more than twofold rise over the previous quarter.
Exciting Q1 growth
Following a 21% increase in Q4, Solana's stablecoin market capitalization surged by 55% quarter-on-quarter to $2.8 billion, placing it fifth among all networks.
USDC was the sole driver of the growth, with its Solana market capitalization increasing by 111% quarter-on-quarter to $2 billion. Solana now has the second-highest USDC total of any network, trailing only Ethereum.
Solana DeFi TVL grew by 232% quarter-on-quarter to $4.9 billion, placing it fourth among networks. SOL remained a market leader after its breakout in Q4'23. It maintained its position as the fifth most valuable token on the market, trailing only BTC, ETH, USDT and BNB.
SOL's market capitalization remains at all-time highs, having peaked at $77 billion in the previous cycle. Solana completed Q1 of 2024 with a market worth of $86.4 billion, an increase of 97% from the previous quarter.
At the time of writing, SOL was down 6.56% in the last 24 hours to $175 and down 32% from its all-time high of $260 attained in November 2021.
Mushumir Butt
Arman Shirinyan
