Solana (SOL) Blockchain Sees Trading Frenzy as Donald Trump's Memecoin Drives Stablecoin Supply to Record High

Solana and its ecosystem of in-built protocols built have become a bustling hub for trading and launching tokens in red-hot

Solana (SOL), a layer-1 blockchain designed for high-speed and low-cost transactions, has seen a surge in trading activity, particularly in memecoins and crypto AI agents.

The total stablecoin supply on Solana reached a record high of $10.5 billion, doubling since the beginning of January, according to data source Artemis.

The increase was largely driven by USDC, which surpassed $8 billion in total circulation on Solana, adding more than $4 billion this month. Tether's USDT also grew significantly, rising to $2 billion from $917 million, as per Artemis.

Stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies pegged to a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar, play a crucial role in the crypto economy by providing a stable and liquid medium for trading digital assets.

Solana and its ecosystem of in-built protocols have become a hub for launching and trading tokens in memecoins and crypto AI agents, two of the fastest-growing and most talked-about sectors in the crypto market.

The network's stablecoin liquidity growth had been gradually increasing over the past months as digital asset markets rebounded from 2022's downturn and showed renewed optimism, especially following crypto-friendly Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

However, the launch of the TRUMP coin on Jan. 17 — the "official" memecoin tied to Trump, which is available on Solana — led to a skyrocketing growth in stablecoin liquidity. Being listed on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and trading against USDC, the token garnered massive trading volume on the network.

Before the token got listed on popular centralized exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, trading with the TRUMP coin was first available on DEX Meteora paired against the USDC stablecoin, David Duong and David Han from Coinbase Institutional Research, noted in a Friday report.

That said, fast-moving traders first needed to first acquire USDC to buy the coin, driving USDC inflows to the network.

Along with the growth in stablecoin liquidity, trading volume on Solana-based DEXs also soared to record highs of more than $25 billion daily, executing 74% of overall DEX trading volume on all blockchains, the report noted.

"Staggering numbers," Sean Farrell, head of digital asset research at Fundstrat, said in an X post.

The increased activity was reflected in Solana's native token (SOL) price, posting the largest gain through this week with 20% among the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index members, vastly outperforming bitcoin's (BTC) 2% advance.

While USDC and Tether's USDT continue to dominate the stablecoin market on Solana — as they do in the broader crypto landscape — there's a growing number of up-and-coming issuers that recently expanded to the blockchain, noted Tom Wan, head of data at Entropy Advisors.

Last week, Hong Kong-based First Digital added native support on Solana for its $1.8 billion FDUSD fiat-backed stablecoin. DeFi lending behemoth Sky, formerly MakerDAO, also brought its yield-generating USDS stablecoin to the network in November.