A closer look at real activity on Solana
Solana is often praised for its massive decentralized exchange volumes and lightning-fast execution. But new analysis from researcher Eekeyguy paints a far less organic picture of what is actually happening on the network, especially on Jupiter, Solana’s largest DEX aggregator.
According to the study, a significant share of Solana’s trading activity is not driven by real users at all, but by automated arbitrage bots exploiting price differences between decentralized exchanges.
How much of Jupiter’s volume is actually bots
The findings reveal a surprisingly high concentration of non-human activity.
Between 40% and 50% of all trading volume on Jupiter comes from pure arbitrage strategies. These bots constantly scan DEX pools, buy a token on one venue, instantly sell it on another, and pocket tiny spreads at massive scale.
Zooming out to the entire Solana DEX ecosystem, the numbers get even more striking. At least half of all Solana DEX volume is attributed to arbitrage bots, and on certain days the figure can climb to as high as 70%.
Most bots are invisible to public dashboards
One of the most important takeaways is how incomplete public tracking actually is.
Only around 22% to 27% of arbitrage activity flows through publicly identifiable Jupiter bots. The majority use custom, private infrastructure that is far harder to detect.
Eekeyguy openly admits that his methodology captures only 40% to 60% of real arbitrage behavior. This implies the true share of bot-driven volume may be substantially higher than current estimates suggest.
Why this distorts Solana’s growth narrative
When traders see reports of massive daily volume on Solana, the natural assumption is that retail participation is exploding. In reality, a large part of this activity is simply machines trading against machines.
Arbitrage bots do provide liquidity and price efficiency, but they do not represent organic demand, long-term conviction, or user adoption. They are exploiting inefficiencies, not expressing market sentiment.
This means headline numbers can dramatically overstate how many real humans are actively trading on Solana today.
What it means for retail traders
For everyday users, this has two implications.
First, liquidity is often thinner than it appears. Remove the bots and the real order flow is much smaller. That can increase volatility when genuine demand or panic enters the market.
Second, price discovery becomes dominated by automation rather than human behavior. This environment can feel hostile for retail traders, especially during fast market moves where bots instantly extract value.
BTCUSA Insight
Solana’s volume story is not fake, but it is highly synthetic. The chain is thriving as an arena for algorithmic warfare, not as a bustling marketplace of retail traders. For investors, the key question is not how big Solana looks today, but whether real human adoption can ever catch up with the bots.
