Uniswap and Raydium the only DeFi apps to see inflow of new users

The past month saw expansion of DEXs trading, driven both by bots and human orders chasing the hottest meme tokens. As most coins and tokens recovered, funds flowed into top Ethereum and Solana DEXs.

Uniswap and Raydium are the apps to show an inflow of new users in July, while other decentralized hubs still relied on returning users. All DeFi protocols showed expanding activity, but the top Ethereum and Solana exchanges saw the biggest inflow of first-time users. 

Uniswap is stable in terms of value locked, carrying $4.64B on Ethereum, and on smaller pools from more than 10 other blockchains. Raydium is solely relying on Solana and the new generation of meme tokens. The Raydium DEX still has around $1.22B in value locked, after SOL price growth in July. 

The success of Raydium also hinges on the performance of Solana (SOL), which moved as high as $194 and serves as a reliable pair-forming asset. This brought 8.4M active users to the DEX for the past 30 days, with more than 600K daily active users. Raydium relies on high turnover, but is still ranked 127 among DeFi apps.

🏆 Top 15 DeFi Projects by 30D Active Users

In the past 30 days, among the top 15 DeFi protocols, only Uniswap and Raydium have seen an influx of new active users. In contrast, other protocols have experienced a decline in user activity, enhancing Uniswap and Raydium's dominance… pic.twitter.com/uTV9ruPZyJ

— Filip Studios (@FilipStudios) July 30, 2024

Raydium and Uniswap produce up to $1.7M in daily fees

In addition to a close number of reported users, Uniswap and Raydium are also generating similar trading fees. The two leading DEXs are gaining around $1.7M in daily fees, even surpassing TRON. Recently, other Solana-based protocols like JitoSOL surpassed even Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of daily fees. 

Despite some outflow of users, other Solana-based protocols like Jito saw increased fees of $2.29M in 24 hours. Pump.fun had fees of $2.3M in the past day.

Uniswap and Raydium have displaced other smaller DEXs as the go-to protocols for the creation and fast trading of new tokens. The two DEXs are still far from the value locked in staking protocols or liquidity pools, but compensate with activity. The ease of use means Uniswap and Raydium are the most successful in bringing in new retail users. 

The recent month’s success builds on the long-running inflow of trades on the exchanges. Uniswap recently reported $342.6B in trades over its lifetime. Raydium showed that use cases are more important than the promises of a blockchain, and recently produced fees to compete even with the Solana main net. 

On extremely successful weeks, Raydium has even surpassed Ethereum. Raydium is still more selective compared to Pump.fun, and is the target DEX for new tokens that aim to build up liquidity. 

DEX trading reaches peak influence

DEX trading started to take off in April, after Q2 saw the expansion of new meme token generation. Centralized markets are still the leaders, though data shows DEXs now carry 14.2% of their trading volumes. The ratio represents total monthly trading volumes, and is the highest since March. 

Now, the ratio has the goal of returning to the high point of the bull market in 2021, when DEX volumes were more than 28% compared to the activity on centralized exchanges. DEXs are not actually stealing volumes from centralized exchanges, but rather offer access to new types of assets, as well as the shortest time frame for listings. DEXs are also fully on-chain and offer a better track record of available tokens. 

The current expansion cycle sets expectations that DEXs can carry up to 25% of activity. When it comes to tokens, the influence of DEXs is even bigger, since most centralized exchanges focus on the largest assets. Additionally, some CEX-listed tokens are viewed with skepticism as potentially holding insider traders.

The 2023 market stagnation brought down the share of DEX trading. In the past months, most leading apps made their experience more intuitive, while adding tools to launch tokens easily. The increased bullish attitudes in 2024 also helped shift activity to DEXs. The other big trend was for a shift from Ethereum-based token trading to Solana, due to low fees and high-profile meme launches.

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Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva