From cointelegraph by Zoltan Vardai

PancakeSwap closed a record year in terms of cryptocurrency trading volume, owing to growing interest in decentralized exchanges and the expansion of layer-2 blockchain networks.

Decentralized exchange (DEX) PancakeSwap recorded $310 billion in total trading volume during 2024, marking a nearly 179% year-over-year (YoY) increase from $111 billion in 2023.

The record year was mainly attributed to L2 networks Arbitrum and Base, as the former saw a 3,656% YoY increase to $13.2 billion, while crypto trading volume on Base rose by 3,539% YoY to $11.6 billion in 2024, according to a PancakeSwap report shared with Cointelegraph.

Growing investor sentiment and decentralized finance (DeFi) trading activity also contributed to the $310 billion milestone, the PancakeSwap team told Cointelegraph:

“PancakeSwap's 179% YoY growth in trading volume reflects the positive market sentiment and increased activity in the DeFi and DEX sectors.”

PancakeSwap is currently the second-largest DEX with a $2.23 billion daily trading volume, second to Uniswap’s $3.11 billion 24-hour volume, DefiLlama data shows.

Related: Bitcoin social sentiment drops to yearly low, signaling BTC breakout

Crosschain growth and UX feature upgrades pushed PancakeSwap past the $310B milestone

Beyond Arbitrum and Base, PancakeSwap saw significant YoY growth across multiple chains, including a 251% increase on Ethereum and a 155% increase on the BNB Chain.

2024 total trading volume on PancakeSwap across top chains. Source: PancakeSwap

PancakeSwap’s yearly milestone comes amid increasing DeFi activity, which saw the total value locked in DeFi rise by over 124% during the year, from $54 billion on Jan. 1 to over $121 billion as of Dec. 24, according to DefiLlama.

Beyond the growing interest in DeFi protocols and DEX trading, PancakeSwap’s user-centric upgrade also contributed to the $310 billion milestone, a PancakeSwap spokesperson told Cointelegraph:

“Additionally, our focus on enhancing key features — such as the revamped swap interface, PancakeSwapX, and tools like the Telegram Swap bot — has helped improve the user experience and drive greater engagement.”

PancakeSwapX was launched on Oct. 15, with zero-fee trading and gasless asset swaps on the Ethereum and Arbitrum networks to improve the crypto user experience.

Without products like PancakeSwapX, new DeFi users first need to set up a native Ethereum address and buy Ether ETH$3,494.65to pay transaction fees before being able to transact on the blockchain. 

Related: Crypto hacks wipe out $2.3B in 2024, marking 40% YoY surge

Such a complex onboarding process can be intimidating for mainstream users, driving most new crypto investors to centralized exchanges (CEXs).

PancakeSwap is the third-largest decentralized exchange (DEX) by monthly trading volume, with over $49 billion worth of crypto traded during the past 30 days, DeFiLlama data shows.