In the last 24 hours the price of the blockchain token Solana (SOL) rose 15%—from $86 to $99, hitting a two-year high.
As of writing, the asset had corrected to around $93 with a market cap of $40 billion. The coin briefly rose to fourth place in CoinGecko’s top-10, overtaking BNB.
The last time SOL showed similar figures was in November 2021. Then, at the peak of the bull market, the coin’s market cap stood at around $75 billion.
After the collapse of FTX, quotes fell to $10 amid alleged ties of the project to exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
On December 21, 2023, the Solana team marked the conclusion of the year with ‘Solana Solstice’. The developers presented an annual review of events, which included the hype around meme token BONK, the launch of the Web3-smartphone Saga, artificial intelligence integration and institutional partnerships.
«The recent price rise in SOL is closely tied to increased activity on the Solana network,» CCdata analyst Hosam Mahmoud told Forbes.
Since the start of December, total value locked on the blockchain more than doubled to $1.35 billion, according to DeFi Llama.
Mahmoud noted that trading volumes on Solana’s decentralized exchanges rose by 33% in less than a week.
Bullish pressure on the coin was also driven by a new wave of meme coins led by BONK and a slew of announced airdrops, the expert added.
Outlook
Despite the impressive momentum (SOL up about 680% over the year), some analysts forecast a near-term drop.
Independent researcher under the pseudonym Cold Blooded Shiller noted that at present some high-frequency traders are creating divergences indicating substantial weakness in the latest highs.
I’ll use $SOL as the example, but there’s plenty of others.
We’re now in a position where there are some HTFs that are producing divergences that indicate a lot of weakness through the last highs.
These divs are relatively unusual as they don’t occur in the extremes, instead… pic.twitter.com/mdj9lTSLS7
— Cold Blooded Shiller (@ColdBloodShill) December 18, 2023
«In fact, these are simply signs that we are more likely to see cheaper prices to buy, rather than that this is some macro cryptocurrency top,» he emphasised.
Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes is more skeptical about Solana. He says he has entirely removed SOL from his portfolio, replacing it with ETH.
Fam … I have a confession to make.
I received a msg from the Lord while meditating. He said dump that Sam coin POS, and profess your love for Archangel Vitalik.
So I dumped $SOL, and bot more $ETH.$ETH = $5,000
— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) December 22, 2023
«Мне нужно признаться. Во время медитации я получил сообщение от Господа. Он сказал выбросить эту монету Сэма и признаться в любви Архангелу Виталику», — написал он.
User Cryptopig claimed the coin broke above the upper resistance around $83 and could rise to $105 in the future.
$SOL up 27% and we love to see it ?
Currently above key resistance, aiming for $105 next ??#Altseason #Alts #Solana pic.twitter.com/kocKcTZqEh
— Cryptopig ? (Gem hunter & trader) (@cryptopigmedia) December 21, 2023
Founder of MN Trading Michaël van de Poppe said now is “the best time to buy altcoins.” He highlighted Solana and Injective at the forefront of positive momentum.
The best time to buy #Altcoins is now.
The reasoning is relatively simple and the past weeks have provided evidence on this.
Altcoins have been suffering for 2023, and mostly 2022, but are quickly rallying upwards.
What's next? Did the bull start? Let's analyze it all. ?… pic.twitter.com/oJKpQ1hwNX
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) December 21, 2023
«Вывод: покупайте альткоины на понижениях и распределяйте свои деньги с умом. Впереди нас ждет великий период», — добавил он.
On the eve, hardware wallet maker Trezor integrated Solana and SPL-tokens.
In December, Circle added support for its euro-pegged stablecoin EURC on the blockchain.
Earlier, Google searches for ‘Solana’ on Google surged to a record high.