Solana DEX Landscape Shifts: The Rise of Active Market Makers (AMM) and Predictions for 2026

The decentralized exchange landscape in the Solana ecosystem underwent a fundamental reshaping in 2024-2025. Markets once dominated by traditional automated market makers like Raydium and Orca have now been taken over by two new types of winners: active AMM market makers focused on high-liquidity assets, and vertically integrated platforms controlling token issuance channels.

According to industry research, the trading volume concentration of Solana DEXs has shifted significantly from meme coins to mainstream trading pairs like SOL-USD, with the core driver of this transformation being the rise of active AMM market makers.

Dramatic Changes in Market Structure: From Liquidity to Order Flow Competition

The competition among DEXs on Solana has evolved from a simple contest over “liquidity depth” to an ultimate control over “order flow sources.” The market structure in 2025 clearly reveals this differentiation.

On one side, active AMMs represented by HumidiFi and SolFi leverage their oracle-based rapid quoting capabilities to establish near-monopolistic advantages on high-liquidity trading pairs. On the other side, traditional passive AMMs are pushed into the long-tail asset markets, with the only viable path to survival being upstream integration—direct control over token issuance channels.

Order flow is no longer passively waiting but is captured by protocols capable of controlling issuance channels or providing ultra-competitive execution prices. This shift signals the end of the era for independent, universal AMM models.

The Dominance of Active Market Maker AMMs: Technology, Execution, and Vertical Integration

Active AMMs update on-chain oracle prices multiple times per second, offering narrower spreads and faster price responses than traditional AMMs. Essentially, these protocols act as on-chain market makers.

HumidiFi is the undisputed leader in this space, holding about 65% of the active AMM market share. Over 98% of its trading volume concentrates on SOL-USDC and SOL-USDT pairs, highlighting its focus and efficiency on mainstream assets. Its success hinges on technical optimization and vertical integration. By reducing the computation cost of oracle update instructions to below 500 CU, HumidiFi ensures its quote update transactions can be prioritized in blocks at lower costs. More importantly, its team, Temporal, also develops the transaction bundling service Nozomi, extending downstream infrastructure and securing key order flow and bundling advantages.

The market impact is significant: data shows that active AMMs on SOL-USD trading pairs have weekly trading volumes surpassing some top centralized exchanges, marking a large-scale shift of CEX/DEX arbitrage activity to on-chain atomic swaps.

The Survival Battle of Passive AMMs: Becoming Issuance Platforms or Facing Obsolescence

Traditional passive AMMs can no longer compete with active AMMs on mainstream assets. Their liquidity curves have inherent lag, making them targets for arbitrage bots rather than venues for organic user engagement.

The only way out is vertical integration—controlling issuance. Future “winner” passive AMMs will no longer be seen as pure exchanges but as token issuance platforms integrating AMM as a profit layer.

• Pump.fun: The most extreme example of this model. As a leading meme coin launchpad, Pump, after securing issuance channels and user traffic, launched its own AMM (PumpSwap), capturing the full lifecycle value from token issuance to listing within its ecosystem.
• MetaDAO: Positioned as a more formal ICO platform. It provides instant liquidity and price discovery for token issuance via its Futarchy AMM, with fees generated by the AMM becoming a core revenue source.
• Meteora: Through close cooperation with Jupiter, Solana’s top aggregator, it gained access to quality issuance channels and traffic distribution, such as being among the first liquidity pool partners for Jupiter’s own decentralized token formation platform.

In contrast, traditional AMMs like Raydium and Orca, which failed to effectively control issuance channels despite launching products like LaunchLab or Wavebreak, face structural growth decline.

The Twilight of Independent DEXs and Token Value Logic

This shift in market structure directly impacts the valuation logic of related protocol tokens. Simple historical price-to-sales ratios are no longer valid; forward-looking growth potential and token value capture capabilities are now key.

Currently, the token market exhibits a “reverse selection”: fundamentally strong businesses without clear value accumulation mechanisms (such as fee dividends, burns, or treasury rights) tend to trade at discounts. For example, although HumidiFi dominates in business, its token WET is explicitly stated by the team as “not an investment,” and its long-term empowerment path remains unclear, affecting its valuation. As of January 11, 2026, WET’s price is approximately $0.14763.

Conversely, projects like MetaDAO, which have growth prospects (ICO platform) and clear value capture mechanisms (such as protocol revenue sharing), enjoy significant valuation premiums. According to Gate data, META has shown strong resilience amid recent market volatility, fluctuating between $6.50 and $10.80.

Outlook for 2026: Continued Differentiation and Ecosystem Niche Consolidation

Based on current trends, we forecast the Solana DEX market in 2026 as follows:

Mainstream trading fully active market making: Active AMMs will continue to dominate order flow for all high-liquidity trading pairs, including SOL, BTC, ETH against stablecoins, and stablecoin-to-stablecoin trades. Technological innovations—such as further reducing oracle update costs and enhancing anti-MEV capabilities—will be key competitive focuses within this space.

Issuance platforms becoming core entry points for long-tail assets: The issuance of new assets (whether meme coins or more formal projects) will heavily rely on platforms like Pump.fun, MetaDAO, or Jupiter DTF. Competition among these platforms will revolve around user experience, community management, project screening mechanisms, and liquidity bootstrap schemes.

Traditional generalist AMMs face transformation or marginalization: If protocols like Raydium and Orca cannot achieve breakthroughs in their launchpad products or find unique vertical positioning, their market share and revenue will continue to erode. They may retreat to liquidity backend roles within specific ecosystems or focus on niche asset categories.

Aggregator roles evolving: Top aggregators like Jupiter will become even more critical. They will not only route user trades to the best prices (mainly active AMMs) but also deepen their involvement in issuance through products like DTF, profoundly influencing overall Solana trading flow distribution.

Dynamics of Major Protocols and Data References

Below is an overview of recent token market performance based on Gate platform data, for readers to reference when analyzing current market structure and sector differentiation:

• PUMP (Pump.fun): As a highly vertically integrated project in the Solana ecosystem, PUMP remains highly watched. Gate data shows PUMP’s current price at $0.002449, 24-hour trading volume around $6.73M, market cap approximately $1.45B, with a market share of 0.075%. Over the past 24 hours, the price increased slightly by 1.57%, showing a generally strong oscillation.
• ORCA (Orca): As a representative of traditional AMM models, Orca faces structural adjustment pressures amid intensified liquidity competition. Latest data shows ORCA at $1.15, 24-hour volume about $119.36K, market cap around $69.7M, with a market share of 0.0026%. Price change in 24 hours is +0.42%, with a relatively stable short-term trend.
• RAY (Raydium): An established DEX still in transition and ecosystem reshaping. Data indicates RAY at $1.15, 24-hour volume approximately $513.8K, market cap about $308.91M, with a market share of 0.019%. The price has dropped 4.39% in 24 hours, showing short-term downward pressure.

When viewing real-time quotes and depth data of Solana protocols on Gate, the market landscape becomes exceptionally clear. Those with technical advantages locking in mainstream asset order flow—active AMMs—and those controlling issuance sources to stand invincible—vertical integrated platforms—have delineated new boundaries. The time left for traditional participants is rapidly slipping away.