Introduction

Orca.so is one of the most popular decentralized exchanges on the Solana blockchain. It has gained popularity and traction due to it's simple UI and it's integration capabilities. The Orca SDK allows developers to integrate with Orca and utilize Orca's features such as swaps, pools etc. within their native apps. More info on the Orca SDK found here - Orca Integrations

Analysis

Methodology

First we compare the daily swap volume on Orca with other DEFI platforms on Solana such as Raydium and Jupiter aggregator.

The daily swap transaction volume chart highlights the number of unique swap transactions that took place in the past 90 days on each platform. We can see that Orca has taken over Jupiter in number of daily swap transactions taking place daily since May 17th 2022.

Findings and Insights

Metrics used for Comparison:

1. Unique Active Wallets - Any wallet that conducted a swap transaction
2. Daily Transactions - Swap Transactions

Next, we compare the unique wallets that are swapping on Orca, Raydium and Jupiter. It is clear that Orca has a significantly higher number of daily active swappers compared to Jupiter and Raydium.

The daily active swappers for Orca grew from about 6k in March to about 140k in May.

Stepn, a "Move to Earn" app on Solana uses Orca under the hood to power swaps. Stepn is also arguably one of the most popular apps in the blockchain space. Hence, Stepn user growth overlaps with the growth of Orca users.

The goal of this dashboard is to highlight the following:

1. The growth of Orca Users grown in the past 3 months
2. Comparing Swap Volume and Swappers for Orca, Raydium, Jupiter Aggregator and Uniswap
3. Stepn's Role in the Growth of Orca Users

Flipside Tables Used:

1. solana.fact_swaps
2. ethereum.dex_swaps

Other Definitions:

1. Stepn Transactions - Swap Transactions on Orca that contain GST or GMT. That is any swap_to or swap_from where GST or GMT were swapped.

How do these transactions and unique swappers compare with Uniswap, the one most popular exchanges on Ethereum and Polygon?

The next two charts compare the daily active swappers and tx volume of Orca with Uniswap.

It is clear that Orca once again has a significantly higher tx volume and number of daily active swappers compared to Uniswap.

Stepn's Role in Orca's Growth

In fact, GST is the most swapped token on Orca since March 1st. GMT is the 4th most swapped token during the same time period.

To assess Stepn's role in Orca's growth, let's compare the percent share of stepn tx volume on Orca vs all other transactions.

It's interesting to see that since March 1st, 77% of all swap transactions on Orca were either GST or GMT swaps (Stepn's tokens)

From the data gathered in this dashboard, we can conclude the following:

1. Orca is the most popular decentralized exchange on Solana, In terms of daily swap transactions but specifically daily active swappers. Orca Daily active swappers grew from 6k in March to 140k in May.
2. Orca even overtakes Uniswap in terms of daily active swappers and transaction volume.
3. Stepn plays a key role in the growth of Orca. 77% of all swap transactions since March 1st on Orca were either GST or GMT swaps.
4. GST is the most swapped token on Orca since March 1st 2022, GMT is the 4th most swapped token during the same time.

The chart below compares GMT/GST transactions to all the other transactions that take place on Orca. Stepn tokens tx volume makes up for most of the tx volume for Orca swaps. Furthermore, while non-stepn tx volume remains at about 50k, Stepn tx volume increased from about 50k in March to over 200k in May. Hence, increasing the overall transaction volume of Orca swaps.

In conclusion, Orca is providing value to both individual users and third party platforms like Stepn. By doing so, Orca is growing at a tremendously fast pace. Any third party can integrate Orca to their platform to harness the capabilities of their offerings.

As more applications and platforms start harnessing the power of Orca, Orca's user base will keep growing. End users may not even realize that the swaps they're making are going through Orca. I am truly excited to see how more projects start using Orca under the hood and how Orca keeps growing.