Solana is now truly dominating on-chain trading. In Q1 2026, the network is controlling 41% of the spot trading share—which has surpassed Ethereum and its entire Layer 2 ecosystem combined. This figure can’t be missed if you want to understand what’s happening in the market.

Total DEX volume reached $284.5B, even though it’s down 18% from the previous quarter. But this isn’t about losing share—activity in memecoin trading has cooled down, and that’s the main reason. Solana’s own market share is actually getting stronger.

Some important changes are taking place within the ecosystem. Automated market maker protocols now account for 62% of DEX volume—up from just 27% a year ago. These models execute quickly and deliver strict price discovery, which is good for traders. Stablecoin pairs are also gaining momentum—now representing 17.1% of total volume.

The tokenized assets segment is growing truly fast. In Q1, trading volume was $1.3B—a 164% increase compared with the previous quarter. People are now buying tokenized equity and pre-IPO exposure. This once again proves that blockchain isn’t only for crypto.

Network-level performance remains impressive. Solana processed 10.1 billion transactions in Q1, with throughput of about 1.3K TPS. The median fee is close to $0.0005— even at peak times, cost efficiency is maintained. You don’t see this combination of scale and low fees anywhere else.

Institutional demand remains steady. In SOL-based exchange-traded products, $208M net inflows were recorded, while Ethereum’s products are seeing outflows. This shows where institutional money is going. Solana isn’t just becoming a trading platform anymore—it’s evolving into a complete financial ecosystem, and that share is steadily increasing.