BNB Reclaims Fifth Spot as Solana's Memecoin Traction Drops 60%
1min read Binance Coin (BNB) has reclaimed its position as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surpassing Solana (SOL). This shift is attributed to a change in memecoin trends, which have moved from Solana to the BNB Chain. According to CrytoQuant, the market cap of BNB has risen to $91 billion, while sol now trails at $73 billion. This change occurred in mid-February, following the LIBRA memecoin saga and revelations of market manipulation. As a result, memecoin traction on Solana significantly decreased, with its decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes dropping by 60% across notable ecosystems like Pump.fun and Raydium.
Over the past three months, Solana’s DEX volumes have plummeted from a record high of $30 billion to $1.4 billion, marking a 95% decline. In contrast, BNB Chain’s DEX volumes have seen a slight increase of 4% over the same period. This shift in speculative interest has allowed the BNB Chain to collect more fees than Solana. According to Artemis data, fees for the BNB chain averaged $1.17 million over the past three months, a 171% surge, while Solana’s fees averaged $1.16 million, down 63%. Despite this, Solana still maintains a higher daily active address count, with around 4 million compared to BNB Chain’s 1.6 million. This suggests that Solana could potentially regain its position as the ‘home of memecoins’ if broader market sentiment improves.
From an investor’s perspective, BNB holders have fared better than their SOL counterparts in 2025. The SOL/BNB ratio has dropped by over 50%, indicating that SOL has underperformed BNB. This decline means that SOL holders have lost nearly half their capital value compared to BNB holders. However, the SOL/BNB ratio is currently at the range-low of a multi-month channel, suggesting that a rebound and potential regain of ground against BNB for SOL cannot be ruled out.
Ask Aime: Why did Binance Coin's market cap surpass Solana's?
