Solana DApps Achieve Record Fees Amid Memecoin Frenzy

Solana-based decentralized applications (DApps) are seeing a surge in revenue, with record fees being generated as the memecoin frenzy makes a comeback.

According to a Nov. 18 post by DeFi commentator Patrick Scott, citing data from DefiLlama, five out of the top ten crypto protocols by fee earnings over the past 24 hours were on the Solana blockchain.

Raydium, Solana's automated market maker (AMM), set a new record with $11.31 million in fees on November 17, while the liquid staking protocol Jito recorded its third-highest day of earnings, raking in $9.87 million on the same day. Additionally, the memecoin launchpad pump.fun earned $1.65 million in fees, marking its seventh-highest day of revenue. Photon, a Telegram trading bot for Solana memecoins, earned $2.36 million in fees, placing it as the seventh-highest earning protocol on the network.

These record fees come amid a surge in memecoin activity and a significant price rally for Solana’s native token, SOL, which reached $242 — its highest price since November 2021.

One notable event fueling the frenzy was the meteoric rise of Peanut (PNUT), a memecoin based on a squirrel character, which saw its value skyrocket by over 2,700% in just two weeks, reaching a peak market cap of $2.4 billion on November 14. The memecoin received attention from Elon Musk, who promoted it on X (formerly Twitter) alongside the launch of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Meanwhile, Dogwifhat (WIF), another Solana-based memecoin, was listed on Coinbase on November 15, briefly reaching a six-month high of $4.19. The Department of Government Efficiency, the new U.S. government agency under President-elect Donald Trump, shares the same abbreviation as Dogecoin (DOGE), which has also been rallying recently, up over 140% in the past two weeks.

Solana’s Market Surge

Solana (SOL) is currently trading at $234, just 8.5% away from its all-time high of $259. The token’s market capitalization has soared to $112 billion, 44% higher than its previous peak market cap of $77 billion in November 2021. This increase comes despite Solana’s ongoing inflation schedule, which releases newly minted tokens to reward stakers.

As of now, Solana's inflation rate stands at 4.9%, with a yearly decrease of 15%, according to data from SolanaCompass. This inflationary model continues to drive growth in Solana's overall supply, even as the ecosystem benefits from the ongoing memecoin excitement.

The combination of high transaction fees, increasing protocol activity, and a booming Solana token price highlights the growing influence of Solana in crypto space, driven in part by renewed interest in memecoins.