Solana price nears $100 amid meme coin surge

Open-source blockchain platform, Solana’s native cryptocurrency, SOL, neared the $100 mark on Friday morning, extending a strong rally into its third consecutive week.

The worth surge has coincided with a frenzy of meme coin activity and rising utilization metrics on the Solana platform.

Meme coin rally pushed by dog-themed token

A meme coin is a cryptocurrency that features recognition and worth extra from viral on-line hype, jokes, and hypothesis quite than having any real-world utility. Probably the most well-known instance is Dogecoin (DOGE), which options the favored Shiba Inu “Doge” web meme as its mascot and was created in 2013 as a joke mocking the flood of altcoins getting into the crypto market.

The catalyst to the present rally seems to be a viral dog-themed token known as BONK, which posted parabolic features of over 1000% in late November. This captured the eye of retail crypto merchants and impressed a wave of animal-inspired “bonk” meme cash speeding to copy BONK’s success.

The largest breakout hit has been dogwifhat (WIF), which rewarded early consumers with returns of greater than 10,000% inside days.

Prior to now month, 1000’s of those speculative meme cash have launched on the Solana blockchain, the popular platform because of its low cost, quick transaction throughput. Most initiatives fizzle out shortly after a short-term pump and dump, however the hype has directed a highlight again on Solana’s capabilities and revived broad-based retail curiosity in holding SOL.

On-chain exercise on Solana has exploded as a result. Buying and selling volumes and community charges over the previous week have surpassed Ethereum for the primary time. Spectacular for a blockchain that’s nonetheless lower than two years previous. Whole worth locked in Solana’s booming decentralized finance ecosystem has equally catapulted from $400 million as lately as November to $1.3 billion in the present day.

Solana value soars

SOL’s value features this yr now stand at over 800%, with an infinite surge occurring inside the previous two months alone. And that’s regardless of huge SOL promoting stress from the continued chapter technique of crypto trade FTX, previously one of many largest holders of the token.

With builders and traders alike flocking to Solana as soon as extra, the blockchain’s thriving ecosystem and standing as an outlet for speculative mania ought to drive SOL quickly towards the vaunted $100 mark in brief order. The million-dollar query might be whether or not the community can maintain this breakneck progress past the meme coin hysteria.

“Solana is recovering extra steadily than most main opponents and exhibits extra curiosity in it locally, which guarantees to maintain its efficiency above the market within the coming months,” Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst instructed Coindesk on Friday.

He added: “Google searches on Solana have soared 250% previously two months. Consumer curiosity has coincided with the explosive progress of the asset and rising costs of associated meme cash.”

Featured picture: AI-generated depiction of meme cash from DALL-E

Sam Shedden

Sam Shedden is an skilled journalist and editor with over a decade of expertise in on-line information. A seasoned expertise author and content material strategist, he has contributed to many UK regional and nationwide publications.