A report by crypto research firm Messari was released, highlighting a significant surge in application revenues on the Solana network in the fourth quarter of 2024.
According to CoinTelegraph, the report attributed the 213% increase primarily to the speculation around memecoins. Application revenues jumped from $268 million in the third quarter to $840 million in the final quarter of the year.
Messari’s findings indicate that the peak of this revenue growth occurred in November, with $367 million generated. This uptick was driven by the trading of memecoins, which became the cornerstone of Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem throughout the year.
Leading the charge in revenue generation was Pump.fun, a memecoin launchpad, which reported $235 million in the fourth quarter alone, marking a quarter-over-quarter rise of about 242%. Other significant contributors were Photon (WA:PENP), a DeFi trading terminal, and Raydium, a decentralized exchange, which recorded revenues of $140 million and $74 million, respectively. Both platforms experienced growth exceeding 250% from the previous quarter.
Messari’s report also noted that these applications played a central role in the heightened speculation surrounding meme coins and the launch of AI-related coins during the quarter.
While memecoin trading was the primary revenue driver for Solana’s app ecosystem, the highest-grossing application not directly tied to this activity was Jito, a blockbuilder, which ranked tenth with approximately $21 million in revenue. Jito still benefited indirectly from the overall increase in trading volume.
In addition, the average daily volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX) on Solana soared by 150% to $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter. The rise in memecoins and AI tokens has been significant, with venture capital funding and political speculation pushing memecoins to around $130 billion in market capitalization, as reported by CoinGecko.
Pump.fun alone generated an estimated $250 million in trading volume in December, according to DefiLlama. Furthermore, Solana has become a leading blockchain for AI agents, securing a 56.48% market share. Bitget’s January report suggests that tokens associated with AI agents could reach a total market capitalization of $60 billion by 2025.
The total value locked (TVL) on Solana also saw growth in the fourth quarter, positioning it as the second-largest blockchain network by TVL at $8.6 billion. Ethereum remains at the forefront with a TVL of approximately $57 billion.
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