Orca DEX swap volume jumps 36% in a day as its token slips

Orca DEX swap volume reached $241 million in the latest 24-hour reading, up 36% from the day before, DefiLlama data showed at 12:46 UTC (8:46 a.m. ET). That made Orca the second-busiest decentralized exchange on Solana ($SOL). The exchange’s own token, Orca ($ORCA), went the other way and slipped 3.9% to $1.74, per CoinGecko.

The quick take

Price: $ORCA $1.74, -3.9% ↓ in 24 hours (CoinGecko, 12:40 UTC).
Trigger: Orca DEX swap volume $241 million, +36% ↑ from the prior 24 hours (DefiLlama).
Watch: whether the SOL-USDC pool, which carried nearly half of the volume, stays this busy.

What happened

DefiLlama counted $241.0 million in swaps on Orca DEX in its latest 24-hour reading. The 24 hours before that came to $177.8 million. Orca’s own stats feed showed a close match, $241.9 million over a rolling 24 hours; the two windows differ slightly.

Only one Solana exchange did more business. BisonFi led with $249.6 million, according to DefiLlama. Orca’s share of all Solana DEX trading was about 13%, out of $1.82 billion.

The wider Solana market grew much more slowly. Total DEX volume on the chain rose 7.4% from the prior reading, DefiLlama showed. Over the past seven days, Orca handled $1.78 billion in swaps.

Why it moved

Most of the jump came from one market. Orca’s SOL-USDC pool handled $117.6 million in 24 hours, up 20% from the day before, Orca’s pool data showed. That is nearly half of the exchange’s total.

Other pools added smaller amounts. A pool pairing $cbBTC with $USDC handled $13.7 million, up about 10%. A stablecoin pool pairing $USDG with $USDe handled $11.5 million, roughly eight times its volume of the day before.

The busier trading came on a soft day for large coins. $SOL traded at $104.31, down 0.9% in 24 hours, per CoinGecko. Bitcoin ($BTC) was down 1.3% at $81,428, according to LiveCoinWatch. The data does not show why traders favored Orca over other venues.

More trading also meant more fees. Orca’s feed showed about $185,600 in trading fees over 24 hours, of which about $24,100 counted as protocol revenue. Deposits did not move much: Orca put them at $280.3 million, while DefiLlama showed $299.3 million.

Swap volume is the dollar value of all trades routed through Orca’s pools. Liquidity providers, the users who supply those pools, earn a cut of each trade as fees. A busier day therefore pays them more, even when deposits stay flat.

Who’s buying and selling

The $ORCA token did not follow the exchange’s busy day. It traded between $1.72 and $1.83 over 24 hours, per CoinGecko, and sat near the low end at the latest reading. Its market value was $105.5 million, with $8.9 million in trading volume.

On-chain trading of the token was close to balanced. In the largest ORCA/SOL pool, DexScreener counted 1,751 buys and 1,654 sells over 24 hours. That pool held $712,691 in liquidity.

Jupiter’s price of $1.737 matched CoinGecko within 0.2%. A busy exchange and a weaker token can sit side by side, since swap volume mostly reflects demand for other assets, such as $SOL and $USDC.

What to watch next

The next DefiLlama readings will show whether Orca keeps volume near $240 million or drops back toward the level of the day before. A one-day jump is not yet a trend.

The SOL-USDC pool is the key market to follow. If its activity cools, Orca’s total will likely follow. Fee totals in Orca’s own data are a second check on how much of the trading is lasting.

Bottom line: Orca DEX had one of its busiest recent days on Solana, while its own token drifted lower in a soft market.