Solana’s Jupiter trading volume skyrockets ahead of JUP airdrop

Jupiter, a Solana-based liquidity aggregator and decentralized exchange (DEX), has witnessed a significant increase in trading volumes, as the platform prepares for the issuance of its native token, JUP.

The increase in volume suggests that traders are positioning themselves to benefit from the Jan. 31 JUP airdrop. An airdrop is a method commonly used in the cryptocurrency space to distribute tokens to users, often to encourage adoption and usage of a new platform or currency.

The Solana ecosystem competes with other blockchains like Ethereum for dominance in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Solana’s total value locked (TVL), or the amount of crypto assets deposited in DeFi platforms, stood at US$1.40 billion at the time of writing, making it the fifth-largest DeFi chain in the world, according to DeFiLlama data. Ethereum hosts the world’s largest DeFi ecosystem with US$31.4 billion in TVL.

Trading activity on Jupiter has been comparable to that seen on established platforms like Ethereum-based Uniswap, currently ranked as the world’s largest DEX with US$4.1 billion in TVL.

Solana is also the world’s second-most active blockchain for NFTs, with US$4.8 billion in all-time sales behind Ethereum’s US$42.4 billion.

In December, Solana’s US$365.48 million barely edged Ethereum’s NFT sales volume of US$363.45 million.

Solana’s native token SOL is the world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization with US$43.8 billion. SOL traded at US$100 at the time of writing, up 15.5% over the past seven days, according to CoinGecko data.