Decentralised exchange volume reaches $462B in December

Decentralised exchanges (DEXs) recorded a historic trading volume of $462 billion in December, according to data from DeFi analytics platform DefiLlama.

This marks the highest monthly DEX volume to date, continuing the momentum seen in November, when trading volumes reached $374 billion.

Uniswap (CRYPTO:UNI) led the market, accounting for $106.4 billion in trading volume over the last 30 days, making it the most active DEX.

PancakeSwap (CRYPTO:CAKE) followed with $96.4 billion in monthly volume.

Solana-based (CRYPTO:SOL) Raydium (CRYPTO:RAY) ranked third, with $58 billion in trades during the same period.

Other notable platforms included Aerodrome and Orca (CRYPTO:ORCA), which reported trading volumes of $31 billion and $22 billion, respectively.

Lifinity (CRYPTO:LFNTY), Curve Finance, and Hyperliquid (CRYPTO:HYPE) contributed a combined $43.6 billion to the monthly total.

The rise in Raydium’s activity aligns with broader growth in Solana's decentralised applications (DApps).

Syndica, a research platform, reported $365 million in revenue for Solana DApps in November, fueled by the popularity of memecoins launched on platforms like Pump.fun.

While DeFi volumes surged, the memecoin market saw a downturn in December.

CoinMarketCap data revealed that memecoins peaked at $137 billion in market capitalisation on December 9 but dropped to $92 billion by December 23, a $45 billion decline.

At the end of December, the memecoin market cap stood at $95 billion, 20% lower than its December 1 valuation.