Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) reached an all-time high in December, with trading volume soaring to $462 billion, according to decentralized finance (DeFi) data platform DefiLlama. Data released on Dec. 30 revealed that December marked the highest monthly trading volume for DEXs, continuing the momentum from November. In November, the DeFi space recorded a volume of $374 billion, spurred by optimism surrounding a potential crypto-friendly regulatory regime in the United States after Donald Trump’s presidential election victory. Top DEXs by Trading Volume Uniswap remained the top decentralized exchange by volume, recording $106.4 billion over the past 30 days, according to DefiLlama. PancakeSwap followed with $96.4 billion in trading volume for the month. Solana’s largest DEX, Raydium, claimed third place, registering $58 billion in monthly volume. This surge coincided with an increase in Solana-based decentralized application (DApp) revenue. On Dec. 17, research platform Syndica reported that Solana DApps generated $365 million in revenue during November, largely fueled by memecoins launched on the Solana platform Pump.fun. Aerodrome and Orca took the fourth and fifth spots, with volumes of $31 billion and $22 billion, respectively. Lifinity, Curve Finance, and Hyperliquid collectively recorded $43.6 billion in trading volume. Memecoin Market Declines Despite Early Surge While DeFi trading volumes climbed, the memecoin market faced a significant correction in December. CoinMarketCap data showed that the memecoin market cap peaked at $137 billion on Dec. 9 but dropped sharply to $92 billion by Dec. 23. At the time of writing, the total market cap for memecoins stood at $95 billion, reflecting a 20% decline since Dec. 1. The early December surge was likely driven by increased interest from U.S.-based trading platforms listing memecoins, alongside Pepe (PEPE) reaching a new all-time high.
