SOL Liquidation Wave Confirms DEX Dominance as Traders Flee CEXs in Market Meltdown

Solana's ecosystem just flashed a neon sign pointing to decentralized exchanges—and it's written in liquidated positions.

The CEX exodus is real

When SOL traders got squeezed during last week's capitulation, the blockchain didn't lie. On-chain data shows decentralized platforms ate CEX lunch during the turmoil—no 'trust us' required.

Liquidation tells the tale

Margin calls don't discriminate. But where they happen reveals everything. This time, DEXs hosted the bloodbath while centralized order books watched volume evaporate. Guess who's not getting those trading fees back?

The new normal (until regulators notice)

Wall Street's still trying to custody NFTs while crypto natives execute atomic swaps between memecoins. The gap's widening faster than a Tether printer on margin call day—and the smart money's already adapting.

Solana DEX markets record activity surge

During the latest market downturn, Solana saw over $94M in perpetual swap liquidations, compared to around $47M in centralized liquidations on derivative markets. Jupiter DEX was the biggest carrier of long liquidations in the past 24 hours. 

The rush to trade SOL derivatives also put Jupiter DEX in the top 5 of Solana-based fee producers, with over $3.88M in fees for the past 24 hours. 

SOL slid to $134.33 following a turbulent weekend that wiped out value from the top assets. The token also crashed to a local low of $128.30, then recovering quickly to also wipe out long positions. 

Solana has been trading in a range since its recovery following the 2022 crash, and has been suitable for derivative trading on short-term volatility. Following the weekend, liquidations shrank open interest from $3.55B to $2.9B, though still leading to an expansion of long positions to 76% of all open interest.

Stabble DEX boosted SOL perpetual swaps

Until recently, SOL was mostly used as a baseline trading asset, included in meme token pairs. While other chains hosted their native perpetual DEX, SOL was mostly included in meme trading. 

The recent spike in on-chain liquidations is linked to the growing activity of Stabble, one of the currently active perpetual swap DEXs on Solana. 

Stabble has been increasingly active since its token launch in June. The perpetual swaps DEX is just starting out, with $3M in liquidity locked and just over $1B in monthly volumes. However, Stabble turned into the most active DEX, surpassing other Solana-based platforms, including Raydium, Meteora, and Orca.

SOL is also among the trending assets on Hyperliquid, entering the top 5 of the most active pairs. The SOL-USD pair traded with over $798M in daily volumes, with over $408M in open interest. The increased activity also drew in whales with significant positions. One of the whales is currently holding a long position on SOL with a notional value above $17M, which holds an unrealized loss of $5.7M.

The short-term market volatility also attracted an older Hyperliquid trader with a history of shorting SOL. The trader is sitting on $9.3M in unrealized gains, with other short positions also in the green.  The SOL position had a notional value of $39M. The large-scale size of whale short bets may signal downward pressure on the price of the asset, but may also lead to a short squeeze. 

SOL is still facing pressure from the regular unlocks of Alameda Research, as well as spot selling from fee-generating apps. The expectation for another drop closer to $100 is increasing both spot and derivative activities.

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