Solana-based decentralized exchange Raydium has emerged as the leading beneficiary of memecoin trading on the network, according to a recent report, earring an impressive $1.7 billion in fees. This accounted for 56% of all fees generated from memecoin trading on Solana.
In 2024, the Solana blockchain saw a massive increase in liquidity, mainly due to the rapid rise of memecoins. These fun and often community-driven tokens attracted a large number of traders and investors, leading to a surge in trading activity. This activity generated a significant amount of transaction fees for decentralized exchanges (DEXs) built on Solana.
While trading bots, MEV infrastructure, and the token issuance platform Pump.fun also collected significant fees, the DEX remained the top earners overall.
Raydium is a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Solana blockchain that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies directly with each other, without the need for a central authority. It provides fast, low-cost transactions by leveraging Solana’s high-speed blockchain and its ability to process thousands of transactions per second.
Raydium operates using liquidity pools, where users contribute their assets to enable trades. In return, liquidity providers earn a share of the trading fees. Unlike traditional order book exchanges, Raydium uses an automated market maker (AMM) model, which ensures liquidity is always available for traders, even for less popular assets.
Photon topped Trading BOTs
Just as Raydium was the top earner among decentralized exchanges (DEXs), Photon led the trading bots category. In 2024, trading bots, which are automated programs that carry out trades for users, earned 24% of the total trading fees.
Photon was particularly successful, generating $250 million in fees, which accounted for 33.3% of all fees earned by trading bots.
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These bots assist traders by automatically making decisions and executing trades based on specific strategies, allowing for faster and more consistent trading.
Photon is a well-known trading bot in the cryptocurrency market, recognized for executing trades on decentralized exchanges. It employs automated strategies to analyze market data and make buy or sell decisions based on pre-set criteria, such as price fluctuations or trends.
Besides Photon, other trading bots also performed well in 2024. Trojan and Bullx were noteworthy, with Trojan earning $123 million and Bullx earning $94 million. Together, these two bots accounted for 16.2% and 12.4% of the total fees collected from trading bots, respectively.
Other bots saw significant earnings as well. PepeBoost earned $65.1 million, making up 8.6% of the total bot fees. BonkBot was close behind with $63.17 million, or 8.3%.
Smaller bots like GMGM and BananaGun also contributed, with GMGM earning $23.76 million (3.1%) and BananaGun earning $20.53 million (2.7%). In total, trading bot accumulated $750 million in fees.
