Solana perpetual futures markets hit new record in August

Solana established its spot as a perpetual futures hub after volumes reached a new record in August. SOL itself has permanently shifted to on-chain settlement, surpassing perpetual futures on centralized exchanges. 

Perpetual futures activity on Solana peaked in August, marking a new record. The rise was achieved by the activity of Drift Protocol, which is among the top 10 perpetual futures markets. Monthly trading volume on Solana-based perpetual futures DEX reached $43.88B in August, breaking the record from late 2024.

Overall, perpetual futures DEX is one of the leading use cases for blockchains, with volumes reaching new records for all chains. The sector is still led by Hyperliquid, but Solana is carving out a lively niche. 

On a daily basis, Solana has also retained its leading position, getting ahead of Ethereum in terms of DEX activity. Orca is currently leading with spot trading volumes for tokens, signaling another shift away from meme tokens. For now, spot DEX has reached over $113B in volumes, surpassing the perpetual futures market. 

Most Solana perpetual DEX traders are active on one or two markets and have performed fewer than 10 trades. Over 22,000 traders have performed between 10 and 1,000 trades. The current activity is organic, with a few special perks on perpetual futures protocols. SOL trading is also among the main drivers. 

Perpetual futures trading also gives liquidity to JLP and JUP, as well as other prominent Solana ecosystem tokens. 

Solana perpetual futures depend on Drift Protocol, Jupiter

Solana overcame the April slump, which caused drawdowns in all types of trading activity. The perpetual futures growth expanded alongside the SOL market price, which reached a peak not seen since Q1.

Drift Protocol breaks new records in value locked, with over $1.3B in its trading pairs. The protocol achieved $16.02B in perpetual futures volumes, based on DeFiLlama data. Solana also relies on other DEXs, which launched perpetual futures. 

Additional volumes on Solana come from the Jupiter perpetual futures market, as well as Raydium’s perpetual futures branch. 

USDC drives perpetual futures adoption on Solana

One of the key factors for expanded trading on Solana is the recent injections of new USDC liquidity. In August, Solana also became the leading network for USDC usage based on senders. 

In the past day, Circle also added a total of 750M USDC to Solana, one of the biggest daily mints. This brings the inflows of new stablecoins at $1.25B in the past week alone. The additional liquidity flows into DeFi, coinciding with a SOL rally above $200. SOL retained some of its gains, to stand at $209.80.

Up to 50% of all USDC transfers are also happening on Solana. The stablecoin is the main liquidity source for Drift Protocol, the most rapidly expanding perpetual futures DEX. Drift Protocol V2 has already received over $2B in USDC deposits, based on the latest available data. 

Solana once again recovered over $12B in stablecoin inflows, of which around $2B still belongs to USDT. The increase in stablecoins also boosted lending, with peak value locked on Kamino and the newly launched Jupiter Lend.