Coinbase is expanding its presence within the Solana ecosystem by enabling users to trade native Solana tokens through a decentralized exchange (DEX) integration. This approach bypasses the traditional listing process for individual tokens.
Andrew Allen, a protocol specialist at Coinbase, announced on X that the integration allows Coinbase users to trade all Solana (SOL) tokens via a DEX. He highlighted that this is achieved "without listings," and soon users will be able to view native Solana assets directly within the Coinbase app. For token issuers and developers, this means their tokens can become accessible to Coinbase's extensive user base if they possess sufficient liquidity, without the need for a formal listing process.
This announcement follows a similar DEX integration by Coinbase for tokens from its own Base blockchain, which was rolled out in early August. At that time, the exchange indicated plans to extend DEX support to other networks, starting with Solana.
Solana's DeFi Ecosystem Experiences Significant Growth
Coinbase's move into Solana's DEX landscape occurs amidst a period of substantial development within Solana's decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.
Earlier on Thursday, DeFi firm Ellipsis Labs announced the launch of its Solana-based perpetual swap DEX. The platform is designed to be fully on-chain, encompassing its risk and matching engines, which allows for open development by third parties. However, the platform is currently in a private beta phase and is not yet available to the general public.
This launch coincides with the release of a new "Solana Lending Markets Report 2025," shared by DeFi infrastructure firm Redstone. The report asserts that DeFi strategies on Solana have achieved "institutional-grade sophistication" and indicates strong growth in Solana's on-chain lending and trading activities.
Redstone posits that Solana has emerged as a "dominant force in on-chain finance," having processed a peak daily DEX volume of $35.9 billion. The firm anticipates that future growth will be driven by "tokenized real-world assets and institutional capital deployment."
Bringing traditional finance onchain at scale can unlock trillions in Internet Capital Markets. Solana's infrastructure is positioned to capture a significant share of this expansion.
Convergence of Centralized and Decentralized Exchanges
The integration by Coinbase represents a broader trend where centralized exchanges are increasingly incorporating DEX platforms, serving as user-friendly interfaces for decentralized finance. In early October, Sergej Kunz, co-founder of the DEX aggregator 1inch, predicted that centralized crypto exchanges would gradually transition to functioning solely as frontends for decentralized finance within the next five to ten years.
The market is evolving, with DEX platforms demonstrating improvements in liquidity, order execution speed, reduced fees, and a more streamlined user experience. Data from DeFi platform DefiLlama indicates that all DEX platforms collectively processed nearly $12 billion in trades over the past 24 hours. This volume surpasses Coinbase's 24-hour spot volume of $2.566 billion and is comparable to Binance's nearly $18 billion in trading volume, as reported by CoinMarketCap.
Kunz's prediction appears to be materializing, as Coinbase is not the only centralized exchange to implement similar integrations. In mid-November, the cryptocurrency exchange OKX also began offering DEX trading capabilities on its platform. Furthermore, at the end of March, Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, introduced centralized-to-decentralized exchange trades across Ethereum, Solana, Base, and the BNB Smart Chain.