Rampant bot activity on DeFi platforms has pumped up the on-chain transaction volume of Solana-based stablecoins past $1 trillion in the first two months of this year alone.
As of Feb. 22, Solana’s monthly stablecoin turnover has reached $643 billion, surpassing January’s volume of $531.32 billion, according to data from crypto analytics platform Artemis.
Most of Solana’s transactions occur on its decentralized exchanges (DEXs), most notably on Phoenix, which has caught the attention of media outlets, data providers, and social media influencers.
It has suspiciously high volumes of daily USDC transfers, hitting $27.5 billion on Feb. 20 alone, according to data provider Hellomoon.
To put that figure in perspective, that one DEX on Solana saw more USDC volume on Feb. 20 than Ethereum’s entire stablecoin transfers that day of $20.9 billion.
It’s worth noting that Solana has $2.2 billion worth of stablecoins in its ecosystem, compared with Ethereum’s $71.6 billion, according to DefiLlama.
Phoenix has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Solana’s top DeFi protocols for daily USDC trading volume, as of 11:00 am UTC, Feb. 20. (Hellomoon)
Cointelegraph’s analysis of the transactions at Phoenix reveals that the majority of its trades are likely conducted by bots rather than people. Trading bots automate complex strategies like arbitrage, which is the practice of purchasing assets in one platform and selling them in another to profit from the price differences in markets.
Blockchain records from the Solana blockchain explorer, Solscan, reveal that the majority of Phoenix’s countless daily orders are spammed by just a handful of addresses.
“A relentless stream of transactions, far beyond human pace, often tripping over themselves in haste,” Slava Demchuk, co-founder of blockchain intelligence platform AMLBot, tells Cointelegraph.
“The notion that bots might be orchestrating these transactions isn’t…..
