Deep Dive
1. DEX Volume Surge (12 October 2025)
Overview:
Orca topped Solana DEXs with $2.49B in 24-hour trading volume during a market-wide liquidation event, per Yahoo Finance. Four Solana DEXs surpassed $1B each, with Orca leading, as traders leveraged its low fees (under $0.01) and high throughput.
What this means:
This is bullish for ORCA because sustained high volumes boost protocol fee revenue (30% allocated to buybacks) and solidify its position as Solana’s liquidity hub. However, ORCA’s price remains down 33% YoY, reflecting broader altcoin weakness.
2. DAO Approves Buybacks (11 August 2025)
Overview:
The Orca DAO passed a proposal to stake 55,000 SOL (~$9.9M) and use staking rewards + treasury funds for ORCA buybacks, per Blockworks. Buybacks are capped at 2% of daily volume to minimize market impact.
What this means:
This is neutral-to-bullish long-term, as buybacks reduce circulating supply (749M total), but short-term price impact may be muted. ORCA’s market cap-to-fee ratio (7.36x) trails Raydium’s (9.63x), suggesting undervaluation if volumes hold.
3. Wavebreak Launchpad Live (29 July 2025)
Overview:
Orca’s Wavebreak launchpad, designed to block bots via CAPTCHA and on-chain permissions, halted 25,000+ sniper attempts during early token launches like DeFiTuna’s TGE.
What this means:
This is bullish for ORCA’s ecosystem growth, as fairer launches could attract more projects and traders. However, competition with Raydium’s Pump.fun and Meteora’s dark pools remains fierce.
Conclusion
Orca is capitalizing on Solana’s DeFi resurgence with record volumes, strategic buybacks, and anti-bot infrastructure. While ORCA’s price lags behind these fundamentals, its fee-driven deflationary model and institutional integrations (e.g., Liquid Collective’s LsSOL) position it for potential recovery. Will staking rewards and Wavebreak adoption offset broader altcoin headwinds?