📝 Editor’s Note:

Welcome to OurNetwork's latest issue covering the DeFi Ecosystems of six of crypto’s major blockchains.

In this one we had the Top Ledger team digging into the wild increase in trading volume on Solana, Hunter checking in on Arbitrum’s strength as a network for stablecoins, and Sam looking at TRX’s deflationary mechanics.

We also had Biff tap in addressing Sui’s increase in active addresses, Haley charting Aptos’ own journey in stablecoin growth, and Messari’s Patryk, outlining the changing dynamics of DEX on Sei. 

In short, it’s a packed issue. Let’s get into it. 

– ON Editorial Team

Solana | Arbitrum | TRON | Sui | Aptos | Sei

• Solana's decentralized exchange (DEX) ecosystem generated over $400B+ in volume in January thanks in part to the launch of the TRUMP token. Volumes cooled to $195B in February, a mark higher than only November and December 2024 for the chain. The chart below shows that central limit order books (CLOBs) have the best velocity ratio, a proxy for volume relative to total value locked, for DEXs on Solana. Automated market makers (AMMs) are the second highest ranking in terms of velocity.

• The exchange Raydium, due to its partnership with pump.fun, the token launched bad, has by far been doing the highest volumes amongst all DEXs — Raydium accounts for nearly half of the total DEX volume on Solana in 2025. Generally, Solana DEX volumes are on the rise — they've crossed 70% of last year's volumes in the first 2.5 months of the current calendar year.

• Unsurprisingly, wallets with a sum total of trading volumes greater than $2.5M USD make up for more than than 70% of total volumes. These traders execute more than 60% of trades as well.

• Stablecoin liquidity on Arbitrum One, the leading Layer 2 (L2) by TVL, has had a notable increase over time with recent projections showing an even bigger increase coming. This is just after Tether, issuer of crypto's largest stablecoin, announced Arbitrum One as the home of USDT0 and USDT conversions across all supported chains (L2s + Layer 1s). Apps like El Dorado, billed as a "superapp" for buying and selling stablecoins peer-to-peer, have also been taking advantage of this stablecoin liquidity on Arbitrum One — the app recently ranked as the #2 finance app on the Google Play store in Venezuela.

• Real World Assets (RWAs) on Arbitrum One have also seen a notable increase, being second just behind Ethereum in terms of asset count. Teams are taking advantage of this. For example, Mass.money, the trading platform, just launched onchain stocks and commodity trading directly in their iOS and Android apps, all tokenized on Arbitrum One.

• Both TVL and DEX volume have been methodically trending up and to the right since Arbitrum One first launched back in 2021.

• In 2024, TRON's annualized revenue surpassed $2B, growing 116% year-over-year. The network burns 100% of TRX transaction fees, making it one of the few deflationary blockchains. Since December 2019, TRX has maintained deflation, with an annualized rate of -0.94% as of Mar. 11, 2025.

• The USDD 2.0 upgrade enhances security, transparency, and DeFi integration, with better risk management, automatic collateral adjustments, and safer liquidations to maintain its 1:1 USD peg. As of March 2025, 223.76M+ USDD is minted with $247.7M collateral, maintaining 110.63% overcollateralization.

• TRON’s TVL is $18.47B, led by TRX Staking Governance at $9.66B. The DeFi platforms JustLend and JustCrypto rank second and third with $5.31B and $2.52B respectively. Strong staking and lending activity highlight network security, governance, and DeFi adoption, reinforcing TRON’s role in stablecoin transactions and cross-chain liquidity.

• Amid broader market fluctuations, Sui has demonstrated remarkable resilience despite a 60% correction of the SUI token from its January peak of $5.30.

• Daily active users surged 8,090% year-over-year to 1.5M, while TVL grew 103% to $1.08B even after a 48% correction from its $2.07B high. With renewed focus on Bitcoin DeFi integrations and stablecoin supply growth, the Sui ecosystem seems to be gearing up for a cold winter.

• Sui has generated significant growth in stablecoin supply recently, reaching a new high of $650M on Mar. 7, a 274% increase year-over-year, and 77% year-to-date. Stablecoin growth is one of the most important metrics for global chain usage and adoption, signifying increased liquidity and utilization.

• Applications on Sui also experience consistent usage. Sui's DeFi ecosystem has grown 108% year-over-year to $1.12B TVL. Lending protocols now control 32% of all value, with Suilend, a lending platform, showing explosive 24,447% annual growth. The top three protocols on Sui account for 78% of all TVL, signaling both concentration and maturation.

• Aptos has strengthened its position as a stablecoin powerhouse, with native support for the world’s biggest stables: USDT, USDC and USDe. USDC, which recently surpassed $100M+ in native supply on Aptos, launched in Q1 along with USDe, the synthetic dollar issued by Ethena, which offers Aptos users yet another option for liquidity, trading and yield generation in DeFi. Stablecoins have been key in expanding Aptos’ DeFi ecosystem, contributing over 20% of the network’s TVL and nearly $200M in stablecoin volume in Q1. That's up over 160% since Q4 2024.

• This week, Aptos DEX volumes soared by $100M over five days to hit $13.1B. The week prior, Aptos DEX volumes hit $13B with a 20% surge in trading volume. This rapid growth signals deepening liquidity and user activity driven by fresh capital inflows & competitive yield opportunities with Aptos DeFi.

• Aptos is also experiencing strong DeFi momentum with bridged TVL up roughly $150M since the start of the year. Bridged TVL reached a 2025 high of more than $895M on Jan. 30 following the news of native USDC arriving on the Aptos network, reflecting growing confidence in Aptos as a stablecoin powerhouse.

• Sei is an integrated, general-purpose Layer-1 network that aims to be the fastest network for exchanging digital assets. TVL on Sei is up 38.3% year-to-date having reached $289.3M. Avalon Finance, a Bitcoin-focused DeFi platform and Sailor, a DEX, both went live in late January and have attracted $27M and $34.8M in TVL respectively. Avalon offers borrowing and lending for Solv Finance's SolvBTC and SolvBTC.BBN. Meanwhile, Avalon's dollateralized debt position (CDP) products, USDa and sUSDa, make up Sailor's largest liquidity pool.

• A major shift in market share over spot DEX volume on Sei is happening. Through the first week of March, Sailor had $77.1M in trading volume, good for 52.9% of overall trading activity on Sei. Meanwhile, DragonSwap, Uniswap, and Jellyverse saw just 25.4%, 13.5%, and 6.7%, respectively.

• DragonSwap's dominance over trading volume on Sei topped on Jan. 15 at 95.1%. After a large drop in DragonSwap's dominance in the days that followed Sailor going live on Jan. 22, dominance by other DEXs has been steadily increasing. On Mar. 8, DragonSwap's trading volume dominance was 21.4%.