Solana price is on track for its first weekly loss in four weeks as the recent bullish momentum faded. The SOL coin was trading at $240, a few points below the year-to-date high of $264.7. It is still one of the best-performing big-cap cryptocurrencies as it jumped by over 2,700% from its lowest level in 2023.
Solana ecosystem is thriving
Solana’s network is firing on all cylinders and having the best performance of the year. Its ecosystem has grown robustly in the past few months and analysts see it as the biggest threat to Ethereum.
Data shows that Solana’s Total Value Locked (TVL) in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) industry has surged by over 50% in the past 30 days to over $9 billion.
Jito, the biggest network on Solana, has over $3.45 billion worth of staked assets, making it the most profitable. Its 24-hour fee was $7.1 million, slightly below Solana’s $7.4 million.
Jupiter has over $2.4 billion in assets, while Kamino, Raydium, Marinade, and Sanctum have billions in assets. Altogether, 7 of Solana’s DeFi protocols have more than $1 billion in locked assets.
Solana’s network has also seen its daily fees surge because of the vibrance of the ecosystem. Its 24-hour fee revenue was over $7.4 million, much higher than the $1.08 million that Etherejm made in the same period.
Solana has also become the biggest chain for Decentralized Exchanges (DEX). Data shows that Solana protocols handled over $128 billion in volume in the last 30 days compared to Ethereum’s $69.2 billion. It was also much higher than the $44 billion that the Base Blockchain processed.
This DEX volume has primarily been driven by the popularity of Solana’s meme coins, which have now accumulated a market cap of over $20 billion. The biggest of these coins are the likes of Bonk, Dogwifhat, Popcat, and Cat in a dogs world.
Solana has become a favorite blockchain for launching meme coins because of Pump.fun, the fast-growing token generator. According to DeFi LLama, the annualized fees in Pump.fun stood at over $1 billion, a remarkable thing for a project that was launched a few years ago.
Therefore, there is a likelihood that the Solana price will continue doing well as it gains market share across all sectors in the blockchain industry.
Meanwhile, there are also hopes that there will be a spot Solana ETF as soon as in 2025. Donald Trump has pledged to be a crypto-friendly president who will make good regulations. That will be unlike Joe Biden who appointed Gary Gensler as the head of the SEC.
Solana also offers higher staking returns than other networks. Its present return is about 6%, higher than Ethereum’s 3.24%, Sui’s 3.1%, and Cardano’s 2.1%. This means that $10,000 invested in Solana will bring in about $600 in staking fees a year.
Solana price forecast
SOL chart by TradingView
The weekly chart shows that the SOL price has done well in the past few months. It has jumped by over 2,700% from its lowest point in 2023. The coin has moved above the 50-week Exponential Moving Average.
Solana has formed a cup and handle pattern, a popular bullish sign. In most periods, this is one of the most bullish signs. The depth of the cup is about 95%, meaning that it could jump to $512.
The other case for the Solana price is that the MACD and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) have continued rising in the past few weeks. In this, the RSI has moved to the overbought level, while the MACD indicator has pointed upwards. The stop-loss of this trade will be at $210, the highest point on March 18.
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