The decentralized exchange PancakeSwap (CAKE) has reached a significant landmark, recording an unprecedented $205.3 billion in quarterly trading volume for Q1 2025. This is the highest trading activity witnessed since the platform’s inception, highlighting the platform’s growing acceptance and the broader adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions.
Furthermore, PancakeSwap has seen a considerable upsurge in user participation. The number of unique traders has reached its peak since Q4 2021, illustrating the platform’s broad appeal and robust ecosystem.
Earlier this year, BeInCrypto reported that PancakeSwap’s trading volume soared to $81.7 billion in February, marking the highest monthly trading volume since 2021. In January, the DEX achieved a trading volume of $78.4 billion. However, data from Dune Analytics revealed a slight slowdown in growth in March, with the volume reaching $45.1 billion. Yet, the overall performance in Q1 2025 has brought the total trading volume to a whopping $1.3 trillion.
PancakeSwap commented on this remarkable growth, stating, “With 2025 already off to an explosive start, the protocol is seeing record momentum in both user engagement and ecosystem activity.”
The current achievement isn’t an isolated incident but a continuation of momentum that has been building steadily since 2023. Over the past two years, PancakeSwap’s quarterly trading volume has skyrocketed from $20.1 billion in Q1 2023 to a record $205.3 billion in Q1 2025, representing a remarkable 922% increase.
This surge in trading volume correlates with significant gains in user engagement. The number of unique traders on the platform swelled by 81%, rising from 3.2 million in Q1 2023 to 5.8 million in Q1 2025.
Similarly, transaction activity on the platform experienced substantial growth, with transaction counts jumping from 44.1 million in Q1 2023 to 114.4 million in Q1 2025, a 159% increase.
“These figures represent not only PancakeSwap’s best quarter to date, but also highlight a significant leap in adoption and usage across the board,” the exchange added.
This milestone coincides with PancakeSwap’s transition into a new phase marked by the official implementation of CAKE Tokenomics 3.0, which began on April 23. This includes several changes, such as the discontinuation of CAKE staking, veCAKE, and related mechanisms.
The platform will also shift to a burn mechanism, aiming at an annual burn of around 5.3 million tokens. Daily CAKE emissions will be phased down from 29,000 to 20,000, with the ultimate goal of bringing it as low as 14,500 tokens, signaling a shift toward greater sustainability.
With these new changes in place, the future of PancakeSwap looks promising, and it will be interesting to observe how these developments influence its growth trajectory in the coming quarters.
