Solana’s Volume Goes Dark: Can Private DEX Dominance Move SOL Price?

Solana’s DeFi sector is going dark, in its literal sense. Private DEXs are now handling the majority of Jupiter-routed trades, and this is a major shift in the activity on Solana. SOL briefly touched $185 on Tuesday, which is its highest in nearly three months, before slipping to $180 by Wednesday.

Behind this surge is a wave of trading activity happening through non-public smart contract vaults.

Private DEXs Shake Up SOL Price Dynamics

According to a report from Pine Analytics, platforms like SolFi, Obric v2, and ZeroFi now account for 40% to 60% of all volume routed via Jupiter. These private DEXs don’t offer user interfaces or public order books. Instead, they operate via internal vaults and use Oracle pricing for precision.

Unlike traditional DEXs, they win trades by execution quality. Tight quotes, fast fills, and minimized exposure give them a natural edge. SolFi tends to quote newly launched meme coins while Obric v2 and ZeroFi focus on high-liquidity pairs like SOL/USDC and SOL/USDT.

The rise of private DEXs introduces a new layer of complexity to Solana trading. It also comes with downsides, which are no front-end access, opaque data, and anonymous backers.

The impact on SOL price has been mixed. Meme coin trading, mostly routed through private DEXs, helped fuel the rally. But the lack of transparency is raising concerns. It could attract regulators or cause liquidity to split across platforms.

Will Solana Upgrades Dim the Private Dex Spotlight?

Solana plans upgrades to boost composability and pricing on public DEXs. These changes may cut into private DEX dominance by improving execution on open platforms.

The Solana price is currently targeting $300 in the next month. Just last week, the SOL coin outperformed all other networks with a weekly revenue from dApps of $50 million.

Earlier this week, meme coin strength and macro factors also pushed Bonk (BONK) toward a 60% rally. That surge, like SolFi’s rising volume, highlights how Solana’s private DEX trend continues to shape short-term price movements.