Solana‘s native token, SOL, approached $100 early on Friday, fueled by rapid blockchain transactions, low fees, and the ongoing excitement of a meme coin lottery that has lasted for three weeks. Metrics suggest that Solana is likely the most eye-catching project among traders, with transaction volumes and changes in network fees indicating that it has surpassed Ethereum‘s on a weekly basis.
Solana’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has also increased, rising from $400 million in November to $1.3 billion, nearing levels last seen in July 2022. This growth has paved the way for SOL’s price to soar over 830% since the beginning of 2023, with most of the increase occurring in the last two months.
Despite significant selling pressure from the bankruptcy of the FTX exchange, which held billions in SOL, investor interest and price increases continue. At the time of writing, Solana (SOL) is trading at $93.28.
Solana’s ecosystem meme coin, BONK, attracted attention with a rise of over 1,000% in late November. This inspired other meme coins like dogwifhat (WIF), which led to news of substantial gains from small investments, with some early investors realizing gains over 10,000%.
Data from the period showed that dozens of meme coins have been added to the ecosystem by new developers, with many rising from very low market values to several million dollars. Meanwhile, some analysts continue to suggest that SOL’s strong performance may persist in the coming weeks.
Solana is recovering more steadily than most of its major competitors and is attracting more interest from the community, promising to maintain its above-market performance in the coming months. Senior market analyst at FxPro, Alex Kuptsikevich, noted that Google searches for Solana have increased by 250% in the last two months, coinciding with the explosive growth of the asset and rising prices of related meme coins. He also referenced recent BONK, ACS, and JTO airdrops to Solana users, highlighting the blockchain’s continued strong growth against the backdrop of new protocols and associated airdrops.