- HumidiFi became the largest exchange on Solana by processing $34 billion in volume last month.
- Dark automated market makers (dark AMMs) are behind this growth and operate without public interfaces or user-provided liquidity.
- These exchanges rely on liquidity from anonymous creators and handle trades routed through aggregators like Jupiter.
- Dark AMMs offer competitive pricing and trade execution, with some saying performance surpasses Binance.
- While transactions are public on the blockchain, the identities of most dark AMM creators, including HumidiFi, remain unknown.
HumidiFi has become the top trading venue on the Solana Blockchain after recording $34 billion in trading volume over the past month. This places it ahead of competing Solana protocols like Meteora, which logged $31 billion, and Raydium, with $21 billion, according to DefiLlama.
This rise is remarkable given that three months ago, HumidiFi often struggled to reach $100 million in daily trading volume. The exchange operates as a dark automated market maker (dark AMM), a type of decentralized exchange that functions without public websites and does not allow users to contribute liquidity to earn fees.
Dark AMMs depend exclusively on liquidity from their usually anonymous creators and accept trades only when routed through exchange aggregators such as Jupiter. As a result, most Solana traders are likely unaware of these platforms, even though their trades may have been executed by them.
The surge in dark AMM popularity occurs amid growing interest in alternatives to centralized exchanges. For instance, on October 10, Binance suffered system failures that led to combined user losses of $283 million during a significant market event. Although Binance later refunded affected users, concerns about its token listings and reliability remain.
Dark AMMs like HumidiFi can outperform competitors because their liquidity is actively managed, allowing them to offer more competitive prices. This attracts higher trade volumes via aggregators and helps protect against predatory trading bots. Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Solana developer platform Helius, stated on X that “The execution quality is actually better than Binance.”
Despite these gains, the combined $127 billion in volume across all Solana exchanges is still small compared to the $1.7 trillion Binance handled last month.
While all transactions on dark AMMs are recorded publicly on the blockchain, the identities of their operators remain mostly hidden since they only interact with aggregators, not direct users. HumidiFi’s team has kept its identity private so far, though recent posts on their X account suggest this could change.
Other dark AMMs with anonymous creators include ZeroFi and GoonFi. Some have disclosed their involvement; for example, market maker Wintermute confirmed managing Tessera V, a dark AMM that processed $8 billion last month. In May, Solana DeFi developer Ellipsis Labs openly claimed responsibility for SolFi, one of the largest dark AMMs previously run anonymously.
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