PumpSwap, the trading arm of the Pump ecosystem, is suddenly putting up eye-popping numbers as the Solana memecoin market heats up again.
The rise comes amid the broader “memecoin comeback” trade that has been building since the beginning of the year, especially in Solana. Traders have been rotating into high-beta corners of the market as bitcoin holds above key levels and liquidity improves after the holidays, lifting a basket of meme names across chains.
Data tracked by DeFiLlama shows that the Pump DEX ecosystem generated a volume of $1.28 billion in the last 24 hours, taking the 7-day volume to $6.15 billion and the 30-day volume to $19.69 billion. Cumulative volume is now nearly $176.8 billion, a reminder of how quickly retail flows return when memes catch a bid.
A snapshot from January 5 shows how dominant PumpSwap has become within its own ecosystem: approximately $1.21 billion of daily volume came from PumpSwap compared to $63.7 million from pump.fun’s previous route.
PumpSwap is Pump’s integrated decentralized exchange on Solana where newly launched tokens can be exchanged once they “graduate” from Pump.fun. Pump.fun is a Solana memecoin launchpad that allows anyone to create a token in minutes, usually with a simple bonding curve-style sale that helps generate early liquidity.
Japan-focused and anime-based tokens appeared to be the flavor of new token issuances in the Asian afternoon hours on Tuesday, although these themes can change quickly depending on new narratives or the demographics of the users most using the platform at any given time.
But there is a problem. Despite the record of operations, the generation of commissions is not skyrocketing in the same way. As of January 5, fees amounted to around $2.98 million, with around $1.21 million marked as protocol revenue and approximately $881,700 going to holders.
Much of memecoin trading involves rapid rotation in and out, often in pools with low fees.
On top of that, competition between Solana venues tends to compress fees as platforms fight to be the default route for swaps.
The rise of PumpSwap is another sign that the “fun” corner of the market has returned, and when memes appear, they drag the rest of Solana’s activity with them.
Whether the volume sustains (and converts into significant revenue) will depend on how long traders continue to play and whether this turns into more than a week of meme season noise.
