In March, Ethereum regained the top spot for total trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX), overtaking Solana, which had led the sector since September last year.

According to DeFi Llama, Ethereum’s total trading volume on DEX platforms reached $64.6 billion, 22% higher than Solana’s $52.62 billion.

Reasons for Solana’s Decline

The decline in Solana’s trading volume, including on platforms like Raydium and Pump.fun, is attributed to a drop in interest in meme coins. However, back in January, the “people’s ecosystem” saw a surge in activity due to the launch of the TRUMP token.

In March, Raydium had no days with a trading volume above $1 billion.

Uniswap’s Role

Amid Solana’s downturn, the Ethereum ecosystem showed more stable results.

The majority of trading volumes came from the DEX Uniswap, which achieved a turnover of $30 billion. Fluid took second place among Ethereum-based exchanges, with $9 billion, signaling growing competition.

Price Performance

Despite its success in the DEX space, the price of Ethereum’s token (ETH) fell by 18% in March, surpassing Solana’s 15.8% decline.

Expert Ali Martinez believes that for the upward trend to be confirmed, Ethereum must return to $2100 and then firmly hold above $2300. These levels, according to him, are crucial for a trend reversal.

#Ethereum $ETH needs to reclaim $2,100, and more decisively, $2,300, to confirm a bullish trend reversal. These are the levels to watch! pic.twitter.com/ldK5HROHvd
— Ali (@ali_charts) March 31, 2025

Market Insights

Alphractal CEO João Vedson noted that altcoins have followed Bitcoin’s movements.

He explained that the market’s average correlation is close to 1: when Bitcoin’s price rises, altcoins follow, and when Bitcoin falls, other assets drop as well.

Altcoins are making the same move as BTC.

The average correlation of altcoins is close to 1, meaning that if BTC goes up, they will go up, and if BTC goes down, they will go down.

This is the moment when HFT bots from exchanges and funds operate in a synchronized manner.

When… pic.twitter.com/1RjyKTXbdg
— Joao Wedson (@joao_wedson) April 1, 2025

During such periods, high-frequency trading bots in exchanges and funds operate in sync, Vedson added. He believes that a decoupling of altcoins from Bitcoin would signal growth for the market.

At lower price ranges, some tokens show signs of a Pump & Dump scheme, suggesting that institutional players may be gradually accumulating assets, Vedson concluded.

It’s worth noting that on March 17, Standard Chartered analysts revised their 2025 Ethereum price forecast, lowering it from $10,000 to $4,000.

On March 26, Ethereum developers successfully deployed the Pectra update on the Hoodi testnet.