The recent hot topic in the trading circle is that the liquidity protocol Meteora from the Solana ecosystem has forcibly taken the top spot on the protocol revenue leaderboard away from Pump.fun.

The latest data as of January 18th is clear: Meteora earned $1.33 million in the past 24 hours, while Pump.fun, which has long held the top position, only made $1.16 million. This is not a slight lead but a direct surpassing of the competitor. When placed in the global ranking of crypto protocol revenues, Meteora now comfortably sits in third place (excluding the blockchain itself).

What caused this to happen? Tracking the flow of funds reveals the answer. The recent wave of Meme coins flying around last year was essentially a pile of worthless tokens that led to immediate losses upon entry. But the trend has shifted recently; large high-frequency trading funds have become more selective. They are now focusing on places with real liquidity and the capacity to handle large orders—such as Meteora’s DLMM market. This dynamic market-making mechanism has done something impressive: it maximizes capital efficiency to extract every bit of fee from swing trading.

Another driving force is Meteora’s newly launched Alpha Vaults. The biggest risk for new tokens is being attacked by bots or "snipers," but Alpha Vaults has become the optimal refuge against such attacks. A large portion of initial trading volume for many new tokens has now concentrated here.

Even more interesting is the huge valuation mismatch. Analyst Tom Lee has calculated that Meteora’s annualized revenue has already surpassed $1.25 billion, yet its valuation remains far below those of more well-known DEXes. Now that its revenue has overtaken Pump.fun, the market will definitely reassess how much this "Solana liquidity foundation" is truly worth.