What is Serum?

Serum is a protocol for decentralized exchanges that brings unprecedented speed and low transaction costs to decentralized finance. It is built on Solana and is completely permissionless.

Serum's utility token, SRM, enables holders to receive up to a 50 percent discount on their trade fees and stakers to vote and participate in the platform's governance mechanism. Those wishing to stay connected on the currency development of Serum can bookmark its blog for up-to-date details.

Solana and FTX

There was a time when Solana’s relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried (co founder of FTX and Alameda) was a good thing. Not anymore. Perhaps no DeFi player has been hit harder by the FTX disaster than Solana.

While Solana was poised to challenge Ethereum, now it’s enduring the most important test of its two-year-existence. Solana’s total value locked has plunged almost 70% since Nov. 7, and its token has lost a high value in the last few days. That’s the price Solana investors have paid as a result of the network’s strong ties with FTX and its sister company, the hedge fund Alameda Research, which invested in nine Solana projects from December 2020, to March 2022. FTX, which was handling $10B in daily trading volume before its collapse, declared bankruptcy on Nov. 11 and is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal and state agencies. On Thursday, John J. Ray, FTX’s new CEO and a turnaround specialist, said in a bankruptcy court filing that the company was a “complete failure of corporate control.”

Solana Foundation and Solana Labs disclosed hey have sold 58.08M SOL tokens to Alameda Research, and FTX trading, since 2020. This represents approximately 11% of Solana’s total supply. Moreover, Solana Foundation stated it has cash/cash equivalent, common stock of FTX, FTX’s FTT tokens, and Serum’s SRM tokens stuck on the now defunct FTX exchange.

Methodology

Now in this dashboard, We are going to analyze how OpenBook (launched on 12th November) was successful in tractions after the Serum fork and see how has Solana DeFi responded to these risks that Serum presented.

Moreover, we are going to check the liquidity flow over Solana DeFi programs especially Serum and OpenBook and check is Solana becoming more decentralized or not.

For this, here are some prerequisites:

• Serum Legacy Program IDs on Solana: '9xQeWvG816bUx9EPjHmaT23yvVM2ZWbrrpZb9PusVFin','EUqojwWA2rd19FZrzeBncJsm38Jm1hEhE3zsmX3bRc2o','4ckmDgGdxQoPDLUkDT3vHgSAkzA3QRdNq5ywwY4sUSJn','BJ3jrUzddfuSrZHXSCxMUUQsjKEyLmuuyZebkcaFp2fg'
• OpenBook Program ID on Solana: srmqPvymJeFKQ4zGQed1GFppgkRHL9kaELCbyksJtPX

The timespan in this dashboard is separated into 2 periods considering that this analysis is done from the last 3 weeks (21 days) till today:

1- Before FTX Collapse = Before 8th November 2022

2- After FTX Collapse = After 8th November 2022

OpenBook and Serum

According to the left data, till today, there are more than 2.51M transactions made with OpenBook by 1191 unique users.

This high number of transactions within less than 10 days shows an almost satisfying welcome of OpenBook on Solana.

On the above charts, we can see there are almost 254k transactions done in an average day on OpenBook with seems not bad. Also, there are 188 unique active users and 120 uniuque new users on OpenBook in an average day.

As mentioned earlier, OpenBook was launched on 12th November, the same date when Serum old program ID has almost deprecated. After this day, we can see increasing trend of transactions and also active users on OpenBook which shows a satisfying welcome of users. But anyway, the total number of transactions and active users on OpenBook is way less than Serum and it has not been able to fully recover the Serum activity on itself.

But, despite deprecating, we can still see high number of users and also new users who are using Serum but the total trend line of number of these users is quite decreasing especially after the FTX collapse.

On the other hand, we can see increasing number of active users on OpenBook as time goes on and there are new users who are using OpenBook for the first time but anyway, similar to the transactions count, the difference between Serum and OpenBook new and active users is still so high.

On the above charts, we can see the liquidity Flow over OpenBook and compare it with Serum after the collapse. As we see, after 11th November the liquidity flow on Serum has decreased significantly and on the other hand, there is increasing trend of liquidity flow on OpenBook but still the difference between numbers is so high.

As it was predictable, Serum program activity has decreased significanlty after the FTX collapse.

Solana DeFi

In this part, I have used solana.core.dim_labels to extract programs that are labeled as DeFi or DEX, and also I have included the OpenBook address manually. Now, I am going to check the activity over Solana DeFi programs before and after FTX collapse.

Based on the above charts, except first days of collapse, we can see huge decreasing trend of activities on Solana DeFi programs especially on number of transactions and this is not good news at all for Solana because users are losing trust in this ecosystem and its programs.

The number of active and also new users on Solana DeFi is also decreasing as time goes on but not as sharp as number of transactions.

Based on the above charts, except first days of collapse, we can see huge decreasing trend of activities on Solana DeFi programs especially on number of transactions and this is not good news at all for Solana because users are losing trust in this ecosystem and its programs.

The number of active and also new users on Solana DeFi is also decreasing as time goes on but not as sharp as number of transactions.

On the above charts and as mentioned above, firstly we can see huge decrease in Solana DeFi activity after the FTX collapse compared to the days before it (the left chart is logarithmic so the difference is higher than what you see).

On the other hand, we can see almost equal share of active users for each program before and after collapse (right chart).

But in terms of transactions (middle chart), we can see the activity is being distributed over more programs after the Collapse. Before FTX collapse huge number of transactions belong to the Serum and Zeta and Jupiter programs but after the Collapse, we can see decreasing share of Serum and on the other hand, increasing share of OpenBook, Solend, Raydium and many other programs and this means the Solana DeFi is becoming more decentralized after the collapse.

Similar to the transactions, in terms of liquidity Flow we can also see huge decreasing share of Serum after the collapse and on the other hand, increasing share of other programs which means the Solana DeFi is becoming more denectralized but as mentioner earlier, the total liquidity has decreased signifncatly after FTX collapse.

SOL and SRM Tokens Flow Within Solana Ecosystem

According the above charts, the daily number of transactions and also users with SOL token within the Solana ecosystem after the FTX collapse has increaseg signifncalty.

The highest spike of transactions with SOL in Solana ecosystem has achieved during 17th and 18th November while the highest number of SOL users was achieved on 9th Novemer (second day after the Collapse).

Similar to the SOL token, we can also see increasing activity of SRM token within the Solana ecosystem after the collapse in both terms of number of users and transactions. We can kinda say the growth rate of SRM token’s activity is more than SOL token’s activity after the collapse timespan.

> Based on the OpenBook article, While they don't want to rule out the possibility of creating a utility token like Serum (SRM), at this point in time, they really don't want to want to have any utility token in this system. So if users are looking for a "airdrop", best to keep it moving. The reason for this is truth be told, SRM never really did much to boost the trading on the DEX. In fact, it just made it costlier to trade on the DEX. The more it's value rose, the more expensive it was to trade. Elementary math tells you that makes the success of SRM inversely related to the success of the DEX. SRM certainly did a lot to boost the wealth of a few folks. THEY loved that correlation. So, for now, and probably ever, No token. It's thats a problem for you, best to keep it moving.

So, maybe the above fact is the reason that not only SRM token activity has decreased within Solana ecosystem but also it has increased with a more growth rate than SOL token activity after the FTX collapse.

Swapping Activity

on the above charts, we can see the swap activity on Solana ecosystem (all assets). as we see, the number and volume of swaps increased dramatically after 8th November especially in terms of volume that the highest spike of swaps was achieved on 9th November with more than 300M USD ! But after a few days, we can see the overal decreasing trend of swaps activity on Solana DEXs as time goes on especially in terms of volume

According to the left chart, as time goes on and especially after FTX Collapse, the share of Saber and Orca swap progams on Solana swap ecosystem has increased signifncatly especially in terms of volume.

On the other hand, we can see the share of swaps volume on Jupiter has decreased signifncatly after the FTX collapse and this means Solana DeFi in DEXs is becoming more decentralized too.

Cross-Chain Bridge Activity (Wormhole)

On the above charts, we can also see quite increasing number and volume of bridges from Solana to the Ethereum since 7th November. Also, there is another huge high spike of bridges from Solana to Ethereum on 17th November.

Maybe this can be users have lost their trust on Solana and tend to bridge their assets to a more safe blockchain like Ethereum.

Also, we can see a significant increasing share of USDC bridges from Ethereum to Solana after 2nd November and its getting more and more as time goes on especially on 18th November that almost more than 99% of all bridges belong to this asset !

Reason Behind Bridging Assets from Solana To Ethereum

In addition to losing trust in Solana ecosystem and the will to bridge asset to a more safe blockchain:

> Binance announced on Nov. 17 that deposits of Solana-based USDT and USDC have been “temporarily suspended until further notice” on the platform. The exchange referred to the tokens as “USDT (SOL)” and “USDC (SOL),” as the USDT and USDC stablecoins remain available for deposit via other blockchains. Binance did not provide more information on the measure, adding that it “reserves the right in its sole discretion to amend or change or cancel this announcement at any time and for any reasons without prior notice.” The firm subsequently resumed deposits for Solana-USDT. Other exchanges such as OKX and ByBit have also delisted Solana-based stablecoins for deposits. OKX suspended their deposits at 3:00 am UTC on Nov. 17, while ByBit reportedly disabled such deposits as of Nov. 17 as well. > > According to the on-chain data, the supply of Solana-USDC is 62% bigger than the supply of Solana-USDT. The total amount of USDC circulating on Solana amounts to 5 billion USDC ($5 billion), or 11% of the token’s total market capitalization at the time of writing. The total amount of Solana-based USDT stands at 1.9 billion tokens ($1.9 billion), or just about 1.3% of USDT’s total market cap. USDC issuer Circle subsequently took to Twitter to state that USDC on Solana is operating as usual and there are no issues with issuing or redeeming the stablecoin. "USDC is always redeemable 1 for 1 for US dollars. Any amount. Any time. For Free. Always," the firm added. > > Also Tether has coordinated with a 3rd party to perform a chain swap, converting from Solana to Ethereum ERC20, for 1B USDT.

So, the above facts can be the reason behind increasing bridge activity of assets from Solana to other chains especially Ethereum.

Staking Activity

In terms of SOL staking, we can see quite increasing number and volume of unstakes during FTX collapse within 8 - 12 November. This shows the users tend to unstake their locked asset in order to be able to sell that anytime they want.

But after a while, in addition to huge decreasing activity on both stakes and unstakes, we can see the share of stake transactions is getting more and more again meaning that there are still users who have trust in Solana and its DeFi ecosystem !

Special thanks to

For completing this dashboard i used flipsidecrypto’s tools and data and get helped from this elite member of flipsidecrypto : alik110

Twitter tweet of this dashboard :

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Conclusions

According to the above analysis:

• OpenBook has attracted significant number of transactions and users to itself after the Serum fork and its share among Solana DeFi programs is getting bigger and bigger as time goes on. but the number of its transactions and users has decreased significantly compared to the Serum good days and this means the loss of trust in Serum and its forked program.
• Before the collapse, huge number of transactions and also liquidity belong to the Serum program and it has almost the largest share among all other programs but after the FTX Collapse, we have seen decreasing share of Serum program over time and on the other hand, the share of liquidity and transactions of other Solana DeFi program has increased meaning that Solana DeFi has become more decentralized after Serum fork and FTX collapse.
• However, the activity over Solana DeFi has decreased significantly after the FTX collapse and this means users have lost their trust in this chain and do not tend to perform transactions on this ecosystem as high as the days and weeks before the collapse. as a proof to this fact, we have seen significant activity over SOL unstake and this is not good news for this ecosystem.
• The activity over Solana swap programs (DEXs) has increased significantly during the FTX collapse timespan especially first days of collapse but after a few days, we have seen dramatical decline in activity over Solana DEXs programs and this also shows the bad situation of another aspect of Solana DeFi.
• The outgoing bridging activity from Solana has increased significantly after the FTX collapse. this means the users have lost their trust in Solana ecosystem and tend to move their assets to another safer blockchain such as Ethereum. Also, As mentioned above, We have seen several exchanges such as Binanace & OKX has suspended the deposits of Solana USDC and USDT assets and also Tether has just recently bridged more than 1B USDT from Solana to Ethereum. All of these facts shows that situation on Solana and its DeFi is not good at all … .
• After the Serum fork, we have seen increasing market share of some programs such as Solend, Jupiter, Orca and Saber and we can say these 4 was the most affected programs.

(Check out my other analysis of FTX Impact on Solana: