Institutional Frenzy Sparks Ethereum DEX Volume Surge, Topping Solana in 2025

Wall Street's crypto fever just flipped the script—again. Ethereum's decentralized exchanges are now outpacing Solana's by volume, as institutional money floods into ETH like it's 2021 all over again.

Who needs TradFi when degens write the rules now?

The numbers don't lie: ETH's DEX ecosystem just pulled ahead in the race for institutional capital. Solana's speed wasn't enough to keep up with Ethereum's liquidity tsunami this cycle.

Funny how the 'ETH killer' narrative dies when real money shows up. Maybe those gas fees aren't so scary when you're moving nine figures.

Coinglass data shows that Monday's net inflows to ETFs topped $1 billion for the first time ever, this was followed by more relentless buying on Tuesday with another $523 million inflow.

Solana, meanwhile, appears to have lost its magic in the second quarter of this year. In January, for example, DEX volumes topped $98 billion in one week and $84 billion in the next. That hype subsided after U.S. President Donald TRUMP released the TRUMP memecoin, which ultimately lost more than 88% of its value over the subsequent seven months, a moment that obliterated investor confidence in memecoins.

Uniswap remains the most commonly used DEX on Ethereum with $8.6 billion being traded over the past 24 hours, the next best being Fluid, which topped $1 billion during the same period.

The change in behavior could bode well for Ethereum-based staking tokens, which experienced a boost following SEC clarification last week. Tokens like LDO , the governance token of liquid staking protocol Lido are up by 65% over the past week.