What applications on the Solana chain are worth paying attention to amidst the MEME craze?
"The 'Poor Man's Wealth Chain' Solana still has a chance."Author: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher
Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher
Since the MEME token BOME (Book of Meme) set a record of over $2 billion in market capitalization within three days, "issuing MEME tokens on Solana and recharging SOL to unknown addresses" has become a new trend. The massive beneficial effect has made users in the crypto community completely FOMO, and it is no longer surprising that an unknown address can easily raise millions or even tens of millions of dollars in SOL within a few hours.
The wealth effect of MEME coins has brought significant traffic and attention to Solana, attracting a number of external applications to the Solana ecosystem.
On March 15, the NFT card game Parallel announced the launch of the AI survival simulation game Colony on Solana; on March 17, the IDO platform DAO Maker announced its expansion to the Solana network, planning to launch four Solana IDO projects; on March 18, the DeFi gamification platform DEGO Finance will go live on Solana.
According to DeFiLlama, the 24-hour trading volume on the Solana chain is approximately $2.39 billion, with captured fees of $3.94 billion, while the trading volume on the Ethereum chain during the same period is $2.86 billion; on March 19, the DEX trading volume on the Solana chain reached $3.62 billion, ranking first for four consecutive days, with an average of over $3 billion in the past five days. The daily trading volume on the Ethereum chain DEX is $3.005 billion, ranking second.
In fact, before the MEME hype, the hotspots on the Solana chain had never ceased, from last year's DePIN craze to the MEME dog Bonk, as well as airdrops from projects within the ecosystem like the oracle Pyth Network, DEX platform Jupiter, and cross-chain protocol Wormhole, coming one after another. As community users say, there is never a shortage of opportunities on the Solana chain; it is truly the "chain for the poor to get rich."
Besides MEME coins, what other opportunities in the Solana ecosystem are worth participating in and paying attention to? This article will outline the active representative projects on the Solana chain.
The Big Three DEXs: Raydium, Orca, Jupiter
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#### Raydium: The Preferred DEX for MEME Token Trading
Raydium is an automated market maker (AMM) trading platform built on the Solana chain, functioning similarly to Uniswap. The platform was initially created in 2021 and became well-known for integrating liquidity with the order book DEX Serum, led by SBF. Following SBF's downfall, Serum fell into a liquidity crisis and eventually shut down and changed its official Twitter account, but Raydium has continued to iterate and upgrade its products, becoming a top DEX again with the revival of the Solana ecosystem.
Currently, Raydium's product features include DEX trading, AMM swap exchanges, liquidity mining, staking mining, and IDO launch Accelerator.
Recently, the MEME hype on the Solana chain has seen explosive MEME tokens like BOME and SLERF, with liquidity pools created on the Raydium platform. Over 90% of the token trading volume occurs on this platform, making it the largest DEX for MEME token trading on the Solana chain.
On March 17, the Launchpad platform DAOMaker announced its expansion to the Solana network and will add a $2 million SOL liquidity pool on Raydium, launching four Solana IDO projects. The first AI e-commerce project, YOUR AI, has already launched its token YOURAI on Raydium on March 18.
According to DeFiLlama, in the past seven days, Raydium captured over $12.91 million in trading fees, while the total fees captured on the Solana chain during the same period were $19.22 million, ranking in the top ten in the DeFi market.
The platform token RAY has increased by 89% in the past 30 days, currently priced at $2.04, with a market capitalization of $530 million and an FDV of $1.13 billion.
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#### Leading Trading DEX Orca
Orca is also a first-generation AMM DEX on the Solana chain. Unlike DEXs that integrate numerous functions, this platform has a very simple interface, only supporting token swaps and liquidity pool additions.
According to DeFiLlama, Orca's trading volume in 24 hours is $1.415 billion, ranking third in the entire DEX market, only behind Uniswap and Pancakeswap, making it the largest DEX by trading volume on the Solana chain.
On March 20, the platform token ORCA was priced at $4.03, with a market capitalization of $190 million and an FDV of $4.01 billion.
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#### Trading Aggregator Jupiter
Jupiter is a trading aggregator on the Solana chain, designed to provide users with the best exchange rates and experiences by integrating the main liquidity markets on the Solana chain.
In January this year, Jupiter announced it would airdrop 1 billion JUP tokens to approximately 955,000 Solana wallet addresses, making it the project with the widest airdrop coverage to date, which once gained immense popularity.
Currently, Jupiter has integrated multiple DEX paths on the Solana chain, including Orca, Raydium, and Mercurial. The platform not only supports SWAP but also limit orders, dollar-cost averaging, and other functions.
In addition to spot trading, Jupiter will also launch contract functions, which are currently in the testing phase, only open for SOL, ETH, and WBTC assets.
Additionally, Jupiter has launched the LFG Launchpad, aimed at helping emerging and existing cryptocurrency projects raise funds, distribute tokens, and quickly initiate liquidity in a decentralized and transparent manner.
On March 13, Jupiter announced that the first round of voting for LFG Launchpad projects had ended, with the first batch of selected projects being the cross-chain communication protocol Zeus Network and the NFT lending protocol SharkyFi. Among them, the first IDO project of LFG Launchpad, Zeus Network, will start its token public offering on April 4.
On March 21, Jupiter announced that JUP DAO would inject $10 million USDC and 100 million JUP next week to accelerate the growth of Jupiverse and public funding.
According to Coingecko, on March 20, the platform token JUP was priced at $1.19, with an increase of over 120% in the past 30 days, a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, and an FDV of $11.8 billion.
Liquid Staking Track: Marinade, Jito, BlazeStake
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#### Marinade
Marinade is the largest liquid staking protocol on the Solana chain, allowing users to stake SOL on the platform and receive mSO as a staking certificate, earning PoS network staking rewards while also participating in other on-chain DeFi interactions to improve capital utilization.
According to the official website, the number of SOL staked on Marinade exceeds 9.98 million, with locked assets valued at $1.74 billion, and its TVL ranks first on the Solana chain, with an annual staking yield of 8.9%.
The governance token MNDE was launched in 2021, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. According to CoinGecko, the trading price of MNDE tokens is approximately $0.31, with a circulating market capitalization of $79.95 million and an FDV of $310 million.
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#### MEV Liquid Staking Protocol Jito
Jito is the second-largest liquid staking protocol on the Solana chain, allowing users to stake SOL in exchange for the staking certificate LSD token JitoSOL. The platform not only provides users with PoS network staking reward earnings but also distributes the MEV earnings rewards to staked users.
According to the official website, as of March 18, the amount of SOL staked on the Jito platform is approximately 9 million, valued at $1.6 billion, making it the second-largest application by TVL on the Solana chain.
In November last year, Jito launched the governance token JTO, currently priced at $3.05, with a circulating market capitalization of $357 million and an FDV of $3.05 billion.
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#### BlazeStake
BlazeStake is the third-largest liquid staking protocol on the Solana chain, allowing users to stake SOL to obtain the staking token bSOL.
According to DeFiLlama, on March 20, the locked assets value (TVL) on the BlazeStake platform is approximately $470 million, with the governance token BLZE priced at $0.0018, and a total issuance of 10 billion tokens.
Oracle Pyth Network
Pyth Network is a decentralized oracle project on the Solana chain that can transmit real-world data to the on-chain world, achieving data interoperability between blockchain and the real world, supporting the construction of the next generation of DeFi. It was created by members of the Jump Trading team and is a star project within the Solana ecosystem.
In October last year, Pyth Network announced the economic model for the PYTH token, with a total issuance of 10 billion tokens, and airdropped 600 million tokens to 750 million wallets, causing a stir in the crypto market.
On March 20, PYTH was priced at $1.02, with an FDV of $10.1 billion.
Cross-Chain Facility Wormhole
Wormhole was initially a cross-chain bridge incubated and supported by Jump Crypto, focusing on asset interoperability between Ethereum and Solana. As the project developed, it has evolved into a multi-chain universal messaging protocol and has completed a spin-off from Jump Crypto.
On March 7, the cross-chain protocol Wormhole announced the economic model for the W token, with a total supply of 10 billion tokens and an initial circulation of 1.8 billion tokens, which will be distributed in ERC20 and SPL formats across five initial chains: Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base, and will airdrop 610 million W tokens to over 397,000 eligible addresses.
As of the time of publication, the W token has not yet officially opened for trading, with an over-the-counter market price of $1.78.
Derivatives Trading Platform Drift Protocol
Drift Protocol is a DeFi derivatives trading platform built on Solana, offering various types of derivatives markets, including perpetual contracts, spot and spot margin trading, lending, etc., established in 2022.
According to the official website, as of March 20, the locked value of crypto assets (TVL) is $286 million, with an open interest of $150 million. Last week, the trading volume exceeded $2.2 billion, setting a historical record, with a cumulative trading volume of over $15.9 billion and a user base of 159,000.
Currently, Drift has not yet issued a token. In January of this year, it launched a rewards points program, allowing users to earn points by participating in trading on the platform.
Lending Protocols: Kamino, Marginfi
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#### Kamino
Kamino is a lending protocol on the Solana chain that integrates lending, automated yield strategies, and leveraged trading, aiming to provide users with a unified and secure DeFi product suite.
On Kamino, users can lend assets, provide leveraged liquidity to DEXs, build automated yield strategies, and use concentrated liquidity positions as collateral.
In January this year, Kamino launched a points incentive program, allowing users to earn points by using the products, such as depositing, borrowing, and providing liquidity.
According to official information, this points incentive will last for about three months, and the platform token KMNO Genesis airdrop will be launched at the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter.
DeFiLlama shows that the locked assets value on the Kamino platform has exceeded $1.18 billion, making it the third-largest protocol in the Solana ecosystem by TVL.
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#### Marginfi
Marginfi is also a decentralized lending protocol on Solana, integrating Swap, LST, cross-chain bridges, stablecoins, etc. This protocol provides users with a unified account to manage their assets or form portfolios to improve the capital efficiency of underlying trading protocols.
In February, Marginfi launched the yield-generating stablecoin YBX based on LST assets, supporting the use of Solana ecosystem LST assets (such as JitoSOL, mSOL) as collateral for minting. Users can capture staking block rewards and MEV tips from the Solana network while also accessing more potential earnings.
Currently, Marginfi has not yet issued a token and has launched an incentive points program, where users can also earn points through staking and lending. The locked assets value on the platform is $777 million, ranking fourth in the Solana ecosystem by TVL.
