Known for scalability, high throughput and meme coins, Solana has emerged as a go-to Layer 1 blockchain for DeFi. From trading to lending and yield farming, it has many popular apps you can explore and use in your crypto life.
In this detailed beginner’s guide, you’ll learn what Solana DeFi is, why it’s become so popular, what you can find here and how you can enter this growing ecosystem.
DeFi on Solana is a decentralized finance ecosystem made of multiple apps and protocols you can use for trading, lending, borrowing and earning yield.
The Solana DeFi ecosystem is growing fast, with TVL on Solana almost tripling in the past two years and multiple platforms gaining traction by quickly reacting to market needs and offering some of the hottest coins first.
For example, Solana-based cumulative DEX volume has jumped from around $22 billion to almost $1.4 trillion in a couple of years, while the number of transactions on this blockchain has more than doubled.
Solana has become a home for DeFi because it’s one of the best blockchains to build and use dApps due to its speed, low fees, scalability and accessibility. Further, the SOL token is currently sixth by market cap, attracting more attention to Solana DeFi.
Here’s why the Solana blockchain is attractive to DeFi developers, traders, lenders, borrowers and yield hunters:
There are several different types of protocols and solutions making up the Solana ecosystem.
Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are one of the cornerstones of DeFi and they’re growing fast on Solana as well.
Some of the biggest DEXs on Solana include Jupiter, Raydium, Drift and Orca, among others. Jupiter also acts as a liquidity aggregator, while Raydium combines traditional orderbooks with automated market makers to function. Magic Eden Swaps is another excellent choice for swapping Solana tokens
With DEX's you have access to all sorts of protoocls, including top AI coins, meme coins, DePIN, and others.
Lending and borrowing are another essential utility in any DeFi ecosystem, and Solana doesn’t lag behind here either.
Some lending and borrowing platforms on Solana are Kamino, Save, Marginfi, Rain.fi and others. Many of these platforms offer more than just lending; for example, on Kamino you’ll also find liquidity provision and leveraged trading.
In DeFi, staking and yield farming are two ways in which you can lock up your tokens and receive yield in return, either by participating in governance (which is usually what staking is for) or by providing liquidity to different protocols (which tends to be yield farming).
On Solana, you can use Sanctum, Marinade, JPool, BlazeStake and other protocols to either stake, provide liquidity or both. This makes a great way to lock up your tokens that you weren’t using anyway and receive yield in return.
As stablecoins are an important tool for investment management, yield generation and risk hedging within any DeFi landscape, you can find both major and Solana-only tokens on this blockchain.
These include Solana versions of leading stablecoins such as USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT), while other multichain stablecoins, such as First Digital USD (FDUSD), can also be found here. If you’re looking for Solana-only stablecoins, Solayer USD (sUSD), Parrot USD (PAI) and USDH (USDH) are there for you to choose. Users often use stablecoins as a way to swap tokens.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and Solana DeFi has NFTs as the solution.
Among its top NFT collections, you can find Frogana, SMB Gen2, Mad Lads, DeGods, Retardio Cousins and more. All of them can be found on Magic Eden, where you can browse whole collections, explore them based on price, rarity and different attributes, and more.
Solana is also known for its meme coins, which flooded the market in millions. According to Hashed data, there are more than 11 million meme coins deployed on Solana.
Once again, you can find many of these top coins on Magic Eden, including TRUMP, BONK, WIF and, of course, FARTCOIN. Learn how to buy meme coins here.
There are different things to consider when talking about DeFi on Solana.
If you want to dip your toes into Solana DeFi, you can do it with Magic Eden quickly and easily.
1. First, you’ll want to download the Magic Eden Wallet and top it up with SOL either by buying it here with fiat or swapping for your other crypto.
2. You can buy SOL with fiat using Magic Eden’s in-wallet onramp. Keep in mind the wallet has a $20 minimum for fiat purchases. Click on Swap at the bottom of the wallet interface, then on the Buy tab at the top. Enter the amount you want to buy, then click Continue.
3. When SOL is in your wallet, you’re ready to start exploring Solana DeFi apps.
4. You can also swap your crypto for SOL on the Magic Eden Wallet or by connecting your Solana wallet to the Magic Eden marketplace.
5. On the Magic Eden web app, find the Swap feature at the top left portion of the screen, right next to the search bar. In the Magic Eden Wallet, you’ll find it at the bottom of the screen.
6. Find the Solana blockchain in the dropdown menu, then the SOL token. In the ‘Receive’ tab, find the token you want to trade for. For this example, we’re using the popular meme coin dogwifhat (WIF), but feel free to browse around and see what’s available.
7. Once you take a look at all the swap details and you’re happy with everything, click ‘Swap Now’ and that’s it!
Your new token is in your wallet and the world of Solana DeFi is at your fingertips.
DeFi on Solana is growing and experiencing changes, following or creating new trends in the crypto industry. For example, one big use case is the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), where several big industry players are choosing Solana as their go-to blockchain due to its speed, low latency and cost effectiveness.
At the time of writing, on this Layer 1 blockchain, there are more than $350 million worth of tokenized real-world assets with more than 7,000 RWA holders.
Moreover, as institutional players are also increasingly looking to use opportunities in DeFi, Solana is likely to attract even more institutional capital and help grow this ecosystem further, bringing new products and services for you as well.
With the Magic Eden App, the world of Solana DeFi is within arm’s reach.
You can use the wallet for buying, selling, swapping and storing your tokens. Both the mobile and the web app have a Swap feature so you can take advantage of the different tokens in the ecosystem.
The Magic Eden marketplace is also full of Solana NFT projects and collections you can browse and consider for your personal collection.
Connect your wallet to Magic Eden today to start exploring DeFi on Solana.
Yes, Solana has a rich and varied DeFi ecosystem. This includes different decentralized exchanges, lending and borrowing platforms, staking and yield farming protocols, stablecoins, NFT projects and meme coins. Solana DeFi keeps growing as it attracts more capital, builders and people, looking to use decentralized finance on this fast and cheap blockchain.
The information provided on this website is provided for general educational purposes only and is in no way financial or investment advice. Certain information may have also been provided to us or prepared by third parties; these materials are provided for convenience and are not an endorsement by Magic Eden. Magic Eden is not liable for any errors, changes or amendments to such information, including any actions taken in reliance on such information.
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