Data & Insights: Trump Memecoin’s Impact, Solana’s Momentum & Key Stablecoin Metrics

Meteora's Meteoric Rise

• Meteora, the Solana-based DEX, recorded unprecedented growth in January with $33 billion in trading volume, representing a 33x increase from December's $990 million.
  • The DEX now has approximately 9% of the total market share, positioning it among the top five decentralized exchanges globally.
  • The current volume significantly exceeds Meteora's previous high of $4.5 billion, marking a new phase of unprecedented growth for the protocol.
• The surge in volume reflects broader momentum in Solana's DeFi ecosystem.
  • Three of the top five DEXs now operate on Solana, highlighting the network's growth in the past weeks.
  • Trump-related token trading maintains significant activity, contributing nearly $300 million in 24-hour volume.
  • However, momentum has cooled off, and the SOL/USDC trading pair has regained its pole position on the platform, with $182 million in 24-hour volume.
  • Solana remains the preferred chain for launching new coins, with 96% of new coins launched on Solana. 
• Many have questioned the sustainability of so many coins choosing to launch on Solana and the potential impacts this has on broader markets. 
  • A thread by Conor Grogan shows that we’re on track to launch more than 100 million tokens by the end of 2025 
  • Contextualized by the fact there were less than 3000 coins during the 2017-18 alt season, some believe that the market has become too diluted to sustain another meaningful alt run. 
  • Cheaper launchpads such as Pump.fun have been a major driver of these coins, allowing anyone to release a new token in seconds. 

GMade in USA

• GMCI recently launched its USA Select Index, which tracks US-based crypto protocols. 
  • The index coins captured significant growth since November, rising from $95 to $269.04 (+183%) as of January 24, 2025.
  • The index, comprising 13 assets, aims to provide a standardized benchmark for US-focused crypto investment strategies.
  • XRP, SOL, and DOGE currently represent approximately 66% of the index's composition, with LINK, AVAX, SUI, ADA, and LTC among other constituents.
• The creation of the index comes off the back of some political developments correlating with the index's upward trajectory.
  • President Trump's executive order supporting US cryptocurrency leadership fueled increased attention on domestically-based protocols. 
  • The new administration's regulatory clarity may contribute to investor confidence in US-based digital assets, including a new crypto-focused task force in the SEC. 
• With such a strong flip in sentiment, the US is quickly re-positioning itself as a hub for crypto activity. 
  • Retail users are pushing crypto app rankings in the app store to new highs while new users are being onboarded at rapid speed. 
  • Institutional investors are seeing elevated volumes across Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, and there are signs that more ETFs are in the pipeline.  
• The index may be an interesting measure of whether other crypto projects will choose to focus more efforts on the US. 
  • Previously, many crypto companies and protocols disallowed users from the US, and some chose to set up US-specific entities such as Binance and FTX. 
  • Similarly, protocols often excluded US users from airdrops and geoblocking access.

ETH’s Still Standing

• Ethereum's network activity has found renewed momentum as active addresses climb to 575,000, marking a significant 37% increase from November's three-month low of 420,000. 
  • The surge extends beyond just user activity, with daily transactions rising to 1.3 million from their 12-month low of 1 million. 
  • In the DeFi landscape, Uniswap continues to demonstrate Ethereum's enduring appeal. It maintains its position as the leading DEX with a 22% market share and processes nearly $1 billion in daily volume. 
  • Uniswap is also the largest gas guzzler, consuming $136k in fees in the last 24 hours.
• Recent institutional developments also appear to be catalyzing this growth. 
  • World Liberty Financial, a Trump-affiliated project, made headlines by acquiring $47 million in ETH last week while also accumulating ecosystem tokens, including AAVE, LINK, and ENA. 
  • In the recent ETH Foundation saga, VC firm Paradigm has introduced a new dynamic by calling for accelerated development from the Ethereum Foundation.
  • This furthers the call for change within the foundation and highlights growing institutional attention on the network's technical evolution.
• The network's resilience is particularly noteworthy, given the current market landscape. While Solana has been the center of memecoin trading activity, Ethereum's metrics remain stable and trending upward. 
  • Active addresses continue their steady climb, suggesting that the network's fundamental value proposition remains strong despite increasing competition in the layer-1 space.
  • However, fees generated by Ethereum have continued to trend downwards,  with $2.22m generated in 24 hours, down from nearly $4m in December 2024. 
• Looking ahead, stakeholders' pressure for accelerated development could influence Ethereum's technical roadmap. As the layer-1 landscape becomes more competitive, these trends may provide insights into Ethereum's evolving role in the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.

BitGet That Bread

• The Bitget token (BGB), the official token of the Bitget centralized exchange (CEX), has been one of the best performing tokens in the market over the past several weeks.
  • Currently trading at ~$6.8, the token boasts a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of approximately ~$8 billion.
  • The price of BGB is up over 320% since December 1, 2024, far outpacing other exchange tokens such as BNB, LEO, and CRO, which have remained relatively stagnant over the same period.
  • This performance is notable even against major assets like Bitcoin, which have seen comparatively flat price action during this time.
• Two major developments in late December 2024 appear to have been pivotal to BGB's recent trajectory:
  • On December 26, 2024, Bitget announced the merger of its Bitget Wallet Token (BWB) with the primary BGB token, consolidating its token ecosystem and streamlining utility. 
  • The following day, on December 27, 2024, it was announced that Bitget would burn 40% of the total BGB token supply, roughly 800 million BGB while allocating 20% of exchange and wallet profits for quarterly token burns.
• Interestingly, following these announcements, BGB fell from a peak of $8.39 on December 27 to a low of $5.79 on December 31, representing a 30% correction in just four days following the latest burn announcement.
  • Since then, BGB has gradually recovered to its current price of $6.9, representing an 8% gain year-to-date.

The Sky’s The Limit

• Since September 17, 2024, the supply of USDS, the native stablecoin of the Sky Protocol (formerly known as Maker), has grown from 98.5 million to 2.32 billion at the time of writing, representing a 135% increase in five months.
  • In contrast, the supply of DAI, the stablecoin previously managed by MakerDAO, has decreased from 5.29 billion to 3.62 billion, representing a 31.5% decrease in the same period.
  • This underscores the protocol’s transition from DAI to USDS, which has quickly gained traction as Sky's flagship USD-backed stablecoin.
• For context, in August 2024, the Maker ecosystem underwent a major rebrand to become Sky Protocol.
  • A key element of this rebrand was the launch of USDS as Sky’s flagship USD-backed stablecoin with more robust collateral options and refined peg-management strategies.
  • By adopting the name Sky, the protocol signaled a renewed focus on accessibility and growth.
  • The old Maker brand was closely associated with “early DeFi” and specialized circles. The shift allowed Sky to broaden its audience and pitch its stablecoin solution to newer participants and traditional financial players.
• Part of the rebrand also included overhauling some of the protocol’s smart contracts and governance processes.
  • The emphasis has been on easier community participation via improved voting tools, more predictable issuance, and, as previously mentioned, enhanced mechanisms to keep USDS’s peg stable across varying market conditions.
• The pivot to USDS seems to have resonated with both existing MakerDAO users and newcomers to Sky, as evidenced by the recent increase in the USDS supply and decrease in DAI.