Solana’s once-booming decentralized exchange (DEX) scene is now showing signs of exhaustion. Trader participation is collapsing as the meme coin frenzy that drove the network’s meteoric rise begins to sour.
According to data from Dune Analytics, the number of daily active traders on Solana-based DEXs has plunged from a peak of 4.8 million earlier this year to just 900,000 in August, an 81% decline.
Source: @ally/Dune
Daily transaction counts have also nearly halved, falling from 45 million in July to 28.8 million this month. The downturn marks the fourth consecutive day that daily Solana DEX traders have remained below the one-million mark, reinforcing fears of a prolonged slump.
The drop mirrors a broader cycle of boom and bust. Activity skyrocketed during the second half of 2024 as meme coins and experimental tokens captured retail attention, lifting weekly trader counts above 30 million by October 2024.
But the rush proved unsustainable. By early 2025, inflows of new traders collapsed, leaving recurring users as the main drivers of activity. Since then, the market has stabilized at a lower baseline, with weekly traders ranging between 10 and 15 million.
Source: @ally/Dune
Solana’s retail base surged in late 2024 as meme coins like BONK and countless imitators drew millions of new users into its ecosystem.
At its height, Solana recorded more than 8 million unique traders, according to Solflare community advocate Baer, who noted that number has since fallen by 87% to just over 1 million.
“That’s a net negative of 7 million people who have left the Solana ecosystem entirely,” Baer said.
Token creation data shows just how unsustainable the meme coin mania has been. On Solana, contract creation surged throughout 2024, peaking in February 2025 with more than half a million new tokens deployed in a single month.
However, activity slowed noticeably by August, indicating fatigue among developers and investors.
Underlying these shifts is the rise of token creation platforms like PumpFun, which have become synonymous with Solana’s meme coin era.
According to Dune data, in the past 24 hours alone, PumpFun saw 26,457 new tokens minted, more than 95% of all Solana token launches during that period. The next closest platforms, Sugar and Bags, recorded just 973 and 673, respectively, while smaller venues like Wavebreak barely registered any activity.
Source: @adam_tehc/Dune
Yet very few of these tokens endure. Out of PumpFun’s 26,457 tokens, only 246 managed to “graduate” beyond their initial launch stage, a survival rate of less than 1%. The vast majority of new tokens either collapsed in value or were abandoned within hours of creation.
Source: @adam_tehc/Dune
By contrast, Bags recorded 10 graduations out of 673 tokens, a higher relative retention rate, but still small in absolute terms. Most other platforms, including Moonshot, Believe, and Boop, saw no token progress at all.
The result has been described as a bloodbath for retail participants, many of whom were lured into speculative meme coin launches only to face rapid losses.
While the frenzy drove Solana’s daily activity to record highs in late 2024, the aftermath has been marked by dwindling engagement and shaken confidence.
Additionally, Solana still leads all chains in DEX activity, according to DeFiLlama. Over the past 24 hours, Solana recorded $4.6 billion in trading volume, edging out Ethereum’s $4.4 billion.
Source: DeFiLlama
The gap widens over 30 days, with Solana posting $358.9 billion compared to Ethereum’s $140.8 billion. BSC and Base followed with $59.2 billion and $53.1 billion, respectively, while Hyperliquid L1 logged $29.8 billion.
Hackers have escalated their targeting of celebrities to fuel fraudulent crypto schemes.
In August, compromised Instagram accounts belonging to Adele, Future, Tyla, and even Michael Jackson’s estate were used to promote FREEBANDZ, a fake Solana token that later collapsed by 98%.
A similar scam tied to a bogus “CR7” token falsely linked to Cristiano Ronaldo briefly hit a $143 million market cap before insiders drained its liquidity.
The latest case involved Kanye West’s official YZY meme coin. West confirmed on Wednesday that his account had been hacked, triggering an 81% crash in the token’s value.
The report shows 73.8% of wallets trading YZY lost money, with 51,862 wallets recording combined losses of $74.8 million. More than 1,000 wallets lost over $10,000 each.
By contrast, 18,333 wallets saw profits, though gains were heavily concentrated. Eleven addresses captured nearly 30% of total profits, worth $66.6 million. Most other winners made under $1,000.
YZY, short for Yeezy Money, launched last Wednesday with a promotion from West’s official channels and website. Pitched as a financial empowerment project, the token shed 70% within hours, fueling claims of manipulation.
Analytics platform Bubblemaps flagged suspicious trading patterns, including “sniping,” where bots grab large token allocations seconds after launch.
The episode shows the risks in Solana’s ongoing meme coin boom, where quick pump-and-dump cycles continue to drain retail investors.
Solana itself has held steady, trading at $212.85, up 4% in the past 24 hours and 15.5% over the week. The token remains 27% below its $293.31 all-time high.
Read original story Solana Trader Count Plummets 81% as “Meme Coin Craze” Turns Toxic by Hassan Shittu at Cryptonews.com