Analysis of Solana Ecosystem Project Performance

Recently, the overall Solana ecosystem has shown strong momentum, with the price of SOL climbing to nearly $100 on December 22. The trading volume on decentralized exchanges on Solana once surpassed that of Ethereum, attracting market attention. Meanwhile, Ethereum is facing various doubts, particularly as DeFi projects that led the previous bull market have lost their appeal. Aside from the recently spotlighted MEME and DePIN projects, how are DeFi projects on Solana performing? Let's analyze them one by one.

Liquidity Staking

Liquid staking has become an important growth point in the Solana ecosystem. Staking locks up funds which is beneficial for the increase in SOL prices, while the application of various liquid staking tokens (LST) in other DeFi projects, as well as the incentive measures from new project airdrops, have all contributed to the continuous growth of participating funds.

Marinade Finance and Jito are the two largest liquid staking projects on Solana. As of December 22, their total locked value (TVL) reached $1.05 billion and $626 million respectively, ranking them as the top two in the Solana ecosystem by TVL. Although Marinade's dollar-denominated TVL is only 57% of its historical peak, the amount of SOL staked (11.15 million SOL) has reached a new high.

In addition to providing staking services, Jito has also developed MEV infrastructure. Its successful airdrop has garnered widespread support for the project. Recently, Jito began incentivizing the use of its JitoSOL in DeFi projects, leading to a rapid increase in staking amounts, which has now reached 6.42 million SOL.

Decentralized Exchange

In the field of decentralized exchanges (DEX), Raydium and Orca remain major projects, but their statuses have changed. Both have developed centralized liquidity features based on their original foundations.

From the perspective of liquidity and trading volume, Raydium's liquidity has decreased from its historical high of $2.21 billion to the current $113 million, which is only 5.1% of the peak. Orca's liquidity has fallen from a high of $1.41 billion to $184 million, which is 13% of the peak.

Recently, the trading volume on DEXs on Solana has surpassed that of Ethereum, sparking heated discussions. Data shows that, whether for 24 hours or 7 days, Solana's trading volume is higher than Ethereum's. Although some have questioned whether this might be due to double counting the trading volume of aggregators, it was found that when calculating the trading volume of each DEX separately, the total 24-hour trading volume of the main DEXs on Solana is indeed $1.55 billion, surpassing the $1.18 billion of the main DEXs on Ethereum.

It is worth noting that the trading volume/TVL ratio of DEXs on Solana is significantly higher than that on Ethereum, which means that with the same principal amount, the income from providing liquidity on Solana could be much higher than that on Ethereum, potentially attracting more funds into the Solana ecosystem.

Decentralized Lending

The decentralized lending sector has undergone significant changes. Among the previously large lending protocols, only Solend remains at the forefront, but it has been surpassed by new projects. Solend's TVL has dropped from a peak of $910 million to $187 million, which is 20.5% of its high. Other established lending protocols have performed even worse, with the TVLs of Port Finance, Larix, and Apricot Finance all experiencing substantial declines.

Emerging projects like marginfi and Kamino have performed excellently, with TVLs reaching $348 million and $204 million respectively, and growing rapidly. These projects have not yet issued governance tokens but have launched point systems that attracted significant funding.

Yield Aggregator

The yield aggregator track has almost been discredited. The most famous yield aggregator on Solana, Sunny, has seen its TVL drop from a peak of $3.4 billion to currently $4.02 million. Other yield aggregators offering lending and leveraged mining features, such as Francium and Tulip, have also performed poorly.

Perpetual Contracts

Compared to perpetual contract projects on Ethereum Layer 2, Solana's performance in this field is not outstanding. Currently, Drift is performing well, using a similar order book trading model to dYdX, with a TVL reaching a new high of $105 million. Mango is an older project in this field, with a significant decrease in TVL, but it has added perpetual contract trading features. Jupiter's JLP adopts a model similar to GMX V1 and has also achieved good results.

Decentralized Stablecoin

Solana has always lacked standout projects in the decentralized stablecoin space. The UXD Protocol once completed financing with a valuation of nearly $2 billion, but its TVL peaked at only $42 million and has now fallen to $11.19 million. Other stablecoin projects that use over-collateralized minting, such as Parrot Protocol and Hubble, have also declined.

Overall, in the Solana ecosystem, liquid staking and the DEX sector have shown impressive performance, while emerging lending projects also demonstrate growth potential. However, the yield aggregators and decentralized stablecoin sectors still face challenges. As the ecosystem continues to develop, Solana's competitiveness in the DeFi space is gradually increasing.