Solana DEX: opportunities for efficient trading
The Solana ecosystem is growing rapidly and is the main competitor to the leading innovative contract platform, Ethereum, surpassing it in several metrics, such as the number of active users. For comparison, the number of daily active users on the Solana network reaches 1.8 million, while Ethereum has only 433,000.
Solana is one of the most advanced blockchain platforms in the decentralized finance market, featuring several major decentralized exchanges (DEXes). As of September 2025, the TVL of the Solana ecosystem exceeds $11 billion — a 7.5-fold increase since the beginning of 2024.
Advantages of trading on Solana DEX
High transaction speed
Solana is one of the most performant blockchains, enabling fast transactions.
High performance is crucial for traders because transaction delays can cause the price of a cryptocurrency to change unfavorably during a trade. In this regard, Solana outperforms other popular ecosystems among traders, such as Ethereum and BNB Chain.
Cost savings on fees
According to the Solscan explorer as of September 2025, the average fee for a regular transaction on the Solana network is just 0.000014 SOL, equivalent to $0.0028 based on the altcoin's exchange rate.
Solana ranks among the top 30 blockchains with the lowest network fees, outperforming Polygon, Celestia, Toncoin, and Base in this regard.
Early access to token trading
Recently, numerous popular tokens have emerged on the Solana blockchain, quickly capturing the attention of investors and the cryptocurrency community. Among them are hyped memecoins such as TRUMP and MELANIA, as well as numerous new projects launched in the ecosystem daily. Their rapid growth and high demand are primarily due to the features of Solana DEX.
It is Solana DEX platforms that play a key role in their early success: users can purchase these tokens through liquidity pools before they appear on centralized exchanges. This allows traders to enter promising projects at the earliest stages — long before media and social media hype drive asset prices significantly higher.
Popular exchanges for trading on Solana
1. Raydium
The first Solana DEX was launched in February 2021 during the peak of DeFi and NFT popularity. As of September 2025, Raydium ranks 6th in the Solana ecosystem by TVL, which exceeds $2.2 billion, and is among the top 30 largest decentralized protocols.
Raydium employs an automated market maker (AMM) mechanism, utilizing liquidity pools with token price adjustment mechanisms, rather than traditional order books commonly found on centralized exchanges. This system allows users not only to trade but also to become liquidity providers (LPs) themselves, earning swap* fees.
* Swap — the exchange of one digital asset (token) for another on the blockchain using an autonomous smart contract.
Raydium boasts a straightforward interface and functionality, making it suitable for even beginners. In addition to standard token swaps, the Raydium DEX offers a portfolio manager for portfolio analysis and management, perpetual contract trading, and a simplified token launch system. Raydium also supports staking of native RAY tokens, offering an annual yield of nearly 6.5% (as of late September 2025). The total number of liquidity pools on Raydium exceeds 100, providing a wide selection of digital assets for trading on the Solana DEX.
2. Jupiter
Although Raydium was the first Solana DEX, Jupiter has surpassed it in terms of TVL, ranking first in the ecosystem. As of September 2025, Jupiter's total value locked amounts to $3.3 billion, making it the most liquid Solana DEX.
Since its launch in January 2024, the exchange's TVL has grown more than 30x, placing it 15th among all DeFi protocols, surpassing Compound, PancakeSwap, and Curve Finance.
Jupiter offers two types of interfaces:
- Standard — for simple token swaps;
- Pro — for advanced trading with support for various order types, including limit orders, and displaying important data such as trading volume, liquidity size, and the number of holders.
Jupiter also supports perpetual contract trading and token-collateralized lending, similar to the Aave lending platform. Additionally, Jupiter offers advanced features such as:
- A studio for launching and managing custom tokens;
- Staking;
- Airdrop checker — a tool that allows users to verify their eligibility for free token distributions and track their status;
- DAO voting system.
Traders on Jupiter have access to hundreds of liquidity pools for token trading. The exchange operates both in a web browser and as a mobile app. Moreover, Jupiter offers a convenient plugin for quick swaps.
3. Meteora
Meteora is the third-largest Solana DEX after Jupiter and Raydium by TVL, which stands at nearly $800 million as of September 2025. Although launched in July 2021, the platform's rapid growth began in 2024, amid the crypto market's recovery from a prolonged correction. Since the beginning of 2024, Meteora's TVL has increased nearly 20x.
Meteora offers various types of liquidity pools, including:
- Stake2Earn — passive income through token staking;
- Pools with Farms — high-yield pools using yield farming mechanisms;
- Multi-Token Pools — pools with multiple tokens, allowing users to deposit more than two tokens, eliminating the need to split assets across numerous pools and simplifying liquidity mining.
In total, Meteora offers over 50 standard liquidity pools, as well as dozens of other types.
4. Orca
Orca is another popular Solana DEX for token trading, launched in April 2021. As of September 2025, its TVL is $391 million, positioning Orca near the top 10 Solana DEX platforms. Orca has demonstrated positive growth, more than doubling its TVL since early 2024; however, its growth pace is slower compared to the platforms mentioned above. However, Orca significantly lags behind others in trading volume, which is around $350 million.
Orca supports only simple swaps, making it most suitable for beginners thanks to its clean and user-friendly interface. The platform supports only popular tokens, with approximately 50 liquidity pools.
5. Pump Swap
Pump Swap was launched in March 2025 and is the newest Solana DEX on the list. Despite its youth, Pump Swap ranks among the top five Solana DEX platforms by TVL, which amounts to $280 million as of September 2025, with a trading volume of nearly $900 million. In just the past three months, Pump Swap's TVL has almost doubled.
Pump Swap is a product developed by Pump.fun — the most in-demand token launch platform in the Solana ecosystem. This means users can easily issue their own tokens and trade them directly on Pump Swap.
Pump Swap features a minimalist interface and offers only simple token swaps.