Solana is considered one of the highest networks, commanding a market cap of over $81 billion, in line with CoinMarketCap data. At the same time as crypto prices rise and sentiment improves, SOL has struggled for momentum.
Solana Retraces: Will Prices Break $200?
Over the past week of trading, market data shows that SOL is stable, posting a 3% dip over the previous 24 hours. The slide comes as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin march higher.
To place the numbers into perspective, Dogecoin is up 22% over the past week. Bitcoin has added 8% during that period, inching closer to March highs.
As SOL prices retreat from this week’s highs of nearly $185, CoinMarketCap experts note that Solana’s ecosystem is growing. At the identical time, the variety of every day lively users continues to tick higher, an indicator of interest.
The uptrend has been solid over the past week. After prices collapsed in early September before quickly recovering, the uptrend has seen SOL rapidly increase. The coin added roughly 50% within the last two months, breaking above $150.
At spot rates, SOL stays inside a bullish breakout formation. Even when the retracement pushes the coin lower, the local support shall be at around $150. If buyers find support at this level, it could set the inspiration for a fresh leg up, rising to the psychological round at $200.
Solana Price Drivers: Thriving Ecosystem, Institutional Support
Possible growth drivers include the lively Solana ecosystem. Last week, every day lively users rose to just about 7 million. Nevertheless, as prices retrace, the number is now around 5.5 million.
Most users are lively meme coin traders on leading decentralized exchanges like Raydium and Jupiter.
Over the past few months, following the launch of Pump.fun in January, SOL has benefited from the tens of hundreds of meme coins going live. Every launch requires the locking of SOL for liquidity, driving demand higher and lifting prices.
While meme coins are key to Solana’s evolution, the network also has a good DeFi ecosystem. DeFiLlama data shows that its protocols manage over $6.2 billion, of which over 50% comprise stablecoins. Out of the $3.80 billion stablecoins in Solana, over 69% are USDC.
Top DeFi dapps include Jito, a liquidity staking protocol managing over $2.4 billion. Others include Solayer–a liquidity restaking solution– and Ondo Finance–a real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform– controlling $275 million and $127 million, respectively.
Beyond the explosive on-chain growth, Solana may benefit from institutional backing. Robinhood, a trading platform, recently began offering SOL to EU clients.
At the identical time, VanEck, considered one of the spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF issuers, released the primary exchange-traded note (ETN) in Europe. The ETN can even offer staking rewards.
Feature image from Adobe Stock, chart from TradingView