In recent days, the crypto market has seen a general pullback, but the Solana ecosystem has performed extremely well in the past month and is expected to quickly recover its price and continue the ecosystem Bull market.

According to statistics, in November 2024, Solana native DApps generated $365 million in revenue, a monthly high; nearly 84% of the revenue came from the DeFi ecosystem, with wallets and infrastructure accounting for less than 15%. In addition, 20 Solana DApps had monthly revenue exceeding $1 million, and pump.fun became "the first Solana protocol to have a monthly revenue exceeding $100 million in history". Odaily will review the performance of the Solana ecosystem in November based on the Syndica report, for readers' reference.

Digging into Solana: Ecosystem revenue and protocol revenue both hit new highs

According to statistics, in November, Solana ecosystem revenue and DApp revenue reached $92 million and $365 million respectively, both hitting "new highs of the year". The former grew 15-fold from only $6 million at the beginning of the year; the latter grew 14-fold from only $26 million at the beginning of the year.

It is worth mentioning that 50% of Solana ecosystem revenue is mainly used for SOL token buyback and burning; DApp revenue statistics are mainly based on data from top protocols, which is not a complete count.

Meanwhile, according to Coingecko data, SOL was only around $101 at the beginning of the year, and previously hit a new high of $263 on November 23, but has since fallen back to around $188, still maintaining a year-to-date increase of around 88%.

Solana ecosystem and DApp revenue chart

Solana ecosystem protocols: pump.fun stands out, with 10 protocols having monthly revenue over $10 million

Another evidence of the rapid development of the Solana ecosystem is the number of revenue-generating protocols, of which 41 had monthly revenue over $100,000 in November; 20 had monthly revenue over $1 million; 10 had monthly revenue over $10 million; and only one, pump.fun, had monthly revenue over $100 million.

According to Syndica's statistics, pump.fun took the lead in Solana protocol revenue in November with $106 million in revenue, thus winning the "first Solana ecosystem protocol to have monthly revenue over $100 million"; other top-ranking DApps include Photon, Raydium, BullX, Trojan, BONKbot, Phantom, Jupiter, and other DEX, Telegram Bot, and infrastructure projects.

Segmented statistics of Solana ecosystem DApp monthly revenue

Data on the top 8 protocols by revenue

Reasons for Solana's growth: DeFi dominates, Meme ecosystem surges over 300-fold

According to statistics, 83.7% of Solana ecosystem protocol revenue comes from the DeFi sector; in contrast, wallet-related protocols account for 9.6% of revenue; infrastructure projects account for 3.4% of revenue; the NFT sector accounts for only 2.2% of revenue; the gaming sector accounts for even less at 0.9%; and the payment and DePIN sectors account for less than 1%.

From another perspective, the Solana ecosystem still has a large market space, with the gaming, payment, and DePIN sectors having great potential.

Within the DeFi sector, which dominates the Solana ecosystem, Meme coins and protocols supporting Meme coins have the highest revenue, reaching $509 million annually; followed by the Telegram Bot sector, with annual revenue of $300 million; and spot DEXes in third place, with annual revenue of $141 million. It is worth mentioning that the monthly revenue of Meme coin-related DApps has grown from $600,000 in January to $183 million in November, an increase of 305-fold, which can be described as an "industry miracle".

In addition, thanks to the drive of pump.fun, Raydium has also become the "biggest beneficiary" of this sector, with a platform monthly revenue of $32 million in November, far exceeding Orca and Lifinity, equivalent to 8 times Orca's monthly revenue and 32 times Lifinity's. Furthermore, since April, the FDV to protocol monthly revenue ratio of DEX tokens has gradually stabilized, maintaining a range of 85% ± 10%.

Thanks to the good performance of the project, Raydium repurchased and burned 5.4 million RAY tokens in November, worth $28 million, for distribution to stakers.

Solana ecosystem sector revenue share statistics

Meme coin-related DApps dominate the top

Meme coin-related DApps see astonishing growth

Raydium leads the spot DEX track

RAY token holders enjoy the spillover effect of Raydium

Infinite potential in niche tracks: Telegram Bot becomes a wealth creation machine in the ecosystem

Also benefiting from the thriving Meme coin ecosystem, Solana has also provided fertile ground for a large number of Telegram Bots.

Accompanying the growth in DEX trading volume, the total revenue of Telegram Bot-related protocols reached $82 million, double the October total; accounting for 4.5% of DEX trading volume share, and this share is gradually stabilizing. BullX and Trojan have become the top 2 DApps in this track, with monthly revenue both exceeding $20 million, totaling nearly $60 million.

Telegram Bots become adept at attracting capital in niche tracks

Solana ecosystem's "super app": Jupiter's JLP becomes the best target

In November, driven by Jupiter's perpetual contracts, its protocol revenue grew to $17 million. 75% of the perpetual fee is allocated to reward JLP LPs, and the remaining 25% is returned to the Jupiter protocol, making JLP a popular investment target for many capital inflows.

As for Jupiter Swap API's integration partners, their overall protocol revenue has grown to $153 million so far this year, with Phantom wallet taking the top spot with annual revenue of $91 million; Solflare follows with $31 million in revenue; and aggregator platforms like Birdeye are close behind.

Overview of Jupiter's monthly revenue in 2024

Overview of Jupiter Swap API partner revenue

Phantom becomes the biggest winner

Potential sectors in the Solana ecosystem: Lending, NFT, Payment, DePIN

In November, the leading lending platform in the Solana ecosystem, Kamino, also performed extremely well, with its protocol revenue breaking a new high, reaching $2.9 million, of which 80% came from lending.

The Solana ecosystem's NFT platform Metaplex is a "low-key and almost invisible" player, as the underlying blockchain protocol for almost all tokens, Meme coins and NFTs on the Solana network, its protocol revenue also hit a historical high of $3.4 million in November; and its FDV/protocol revenue ratio has dropped from 273 in January to 113 in November, significantly improving the project's operational stability and reducing its previous "obesity". Its token MPLX once surged by more than 20% after the Metaplex Foundation announced the launch of the Aura network in September.

In the payment sector, many projects in the Solana ecosystem now appear to be on the "eve of an outbreak", among which the monthly revenue of the crypto payment company Helio has grown from $43,000 in January to $316,000, an increase of nearly 7 times. The project charges a 2% fee per transaction, and HelioX NFT holders enjoy a 50% discount, only needing to pay a 1% fee.

In the DePIN sector, the leading projects in the Solana ecosystem mainly include Render Network, Nosana, Helium, and Hivemapper. The monthly revenue of these four projects has steadily increased from around $150,000 in January to a total of $669,000 in November, an increase of about 446%. It is worth noting that the revenue calculation here is based on the value of tokens such as RENDER, HONEY, and NOS burned, and is for reference only.

Kamino becomes the leading lending platform

Metaplex's FDV/revenue ratio has dropped significantly

Payment infrastructure is on the eve of an outbreak

DePIN sector is making steady progress

Conclusion: Solana is still "walking on one leg" in the short to medium term, and in the long term, it hopes for crypto-friendly policies from Trump

In the short to medium term, the main source of revenue in the Solana ecosystem is still in the DeFi and Meme coin sectors. Although the DePIN track, which the Solana Foundation and Solana community have placed high hopes on, has had a "dreamlike start" with the SAGA phone, it has not yet fully opened up the market; the payment sector is still in the early stage of development, and the stablecoin swap pool project Perena founded by former Solana Foundation member Anna Yuan is expected to bring about changes to the current situation, but it will still take some time to attract more liquidity.

In the long run, the continued development of the Solana ecosystem still depends on the series of crypto-friendly policies to be introduced by Trump after he officially takes office as the US President, which will allow more funds, capital, and blockchain infrastructure construction to be deeply integrated with the US economy, achieving a win-win situation for the "ecosystem, token market capitalization, and token price".