Solana Dominates Q1, But Cracks Appear as Ethereum Gains Ground

Solana remained the top chain for decentralized exchange spot trading in Q1 2026, with a 30.6% market share, according to CoinGecko’s latest findings.

Its trading volume fell by 26.5% during the same period.

DEX Wars Intensify

This momentum shifted in March, when Ethereum briefly overtook Solana with a 27% share compared to the latter’s 26%. CoinGecko revealed BNB Chain ranked second for the quarter overall after holding a 24.5% share, slightly ahead of Ethereum’s 23.7%. Despite this, BNB Chain recorded a steeper drop in trading activity. This indicates a possible decline to third place in the coming quarter.

Meanwhile, Monad has steadily gained traction since its mainnet launch in November 2025 and is now the tenth-largest chain by spot trading volume, surpassing networks like Unichain and Optimism.

Interestingly, Solana also handled far more activity than any other blockchain in Q1 2026, as it processed about 25.3 billion transactions, as per CoinRank’s data. Meanwhile, BNB Chain came in a distant second with 1.7 billion transactions, followed by Tron at 978 million. Polygon and Aptos were much closer to each other, each recording around 700 million transactions, while all other major chains stayed below 500 million.

Solana saw a major jump in terms of stablecoin activity in February 2026, having recorded around $650 billion in transactions in a single month, according to The Kobeissi Letter. This was a record high and was nearly three times higher than January’s level.

The growth was driven by new offerings like Western Union’s USDPT and Jupiter’s JUPUSD, which helped attract more users. JUPUSD also drew attention for offering yield features within its ecosystem.

SOL Ends Week Strong

Solana’s price has been volatile in the past week. The crypto asset, which currently sits at the 7th spot by market cap, started near $84 and saw early fluctuations before a sharp decline around April 12-13, when it dropped toward the $82 level. Selling pressure eased midweek, and a recovery began on April 14 as prices moved back above $84.

Momentum strengthened later into the week, which ended up pushing SOL toward $89.86.