Solana hits transaction records amid scrutiny of DEX volume

Solana has reached new milestones in network activity, though recent data analysis raises questions regarding the nature of its decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume.

Between August 17 and August 23, 2026, the Solana network processed a record 1.32 billion non-vote transactions. These transactions, which exclude validator votes used for consensus, represent activity from users and applications such as transfers and decentralized finance interactions. This surge follows a recent network upgrade, SIMD-0286, which increased the maximum block compute limit from 60 million to 100 million units.

However, a study by on-chain data provider Bitquery has challenged the quality of Solana's DEX volume. Analyzing a 30-day window from August 24 to September 22, Bitquery found that approximately 58.4% of the $201.4 billion in priced trading activity met criteria for non-economic, circular activity. This equates to roughly $117.7 billion in flagged transactions. The study noted that about 95% of this flagged activity involved buying and selling the same token within a single transaction. While the findings highlight potential discrepancies in volume metrics, they do not provide a definitive measure of genuine demand across the entire network.