Solana’s Q2 Paradox: DeFi TVL Nears All-Time High Despite 44% Revenue Plunge

Solana's ecosystem tells two starkly different stories this quarter—DeFi activity surges while network revenue collapses.

The Revenue Reality Check

Blockchain revenue nosedived 44% in Q2, hitting Solana's bottom line hard. Validators and stakeholders feel the pinch as transaction fees evaporate—proof that even high-performance chains aren't immune to crypto's volatility.

DeFi's Contradictory Boom

Total value locked rockets toward record highs, defying the revenue slump. Traders pile into Solana's DeFi ecosystem, chasing yields and leverage while apparently forgetting that network security ultimately gets paid from those missing fees.

Welcome to crypto economics—where users celebrate TVL numbers while the underlying infrastructure bleeds value. Classic decentralized finance irony.

PumpFun, the leading contributor to Solana’s revenue, generated $156.9 million during the three months. However, that figure marked a 43.9% quarterly decline, reflecting weaker memecoin activity.

Meanwhile, Axiom moved in the opposite direction, rising 641.3% to $126.6 million in revenue. Jupiter, a major DeFi aggregator, brought in $66.4 million, though this represented a 15.6% drop from the previous quarter.

Additionally, Phantom wallet also posted $53.5 million, down 65.4%, while Photon slipped 72.4% to $32.5 million.

DeFi TVL rises

Despite the revenue contraction, Solana’s DeFi sector showed resilience during the period.

According to the report, the total value of assets locked (TVL) climbed 30.4% quarter-over-quarter to $8.6 billion, cementing Solana’s position as the second-largest DeFi network after Ethereum.

The rise has continued, with the sector’s TVL climbing to more than $11 billion, according to DeFiLlama data.

Kamino Finance extended its dominance with a 33.9% TVL increase to $2.1 billion, giving it a 25.3% market share. This surge followed the launch of Kamino Lend V2 in May, which attracted more than $200 million in deposits and $80 million in loans within its first three weeks.

Raydium also staged a comeback, overtaking Jupiter to reclaim second place. Raydium’s TVL grew 53.5% to $1.8 billion, while Jupiter expanded 13.2% to $1.6 billion. As a result, Raydium now commands 21.1% of Solana’s market share, compared to Jupiter’s 19.4%.

Trading volume lags

However, the growth in TVL did not translate into higher trading activity.

The average daily spot DEX volume across the Solana ecosystem fell 45.4% in Q2 to $2.5 billion.

Messari attributed the slump to fading memecoin momentum, which had driven record trading activity in the first quarter.