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 reputation and worth extra from viral on-line hype, jokes, and hypothesis slightly 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 referred to 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, hundreds of those speculative meme cash have launched on the Solana blockchain, the popular platform resulting from its low-cost, quick transaction throughput. Most tasks 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. Complete worth locked in Solana’s booming decentralized finance ecosystem has equally catapulted from $400 million as just lately as November to $1.3 billion right now.

Solana value soars

SOL’s value features this yr now stand at over 800%, with an unlimited surge occurring inside the previous two months alone. And that’s regardless of huge SOL promoting strain from the continued chapter strategy of crypto change 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 briefly order. The million-dollar query can be whether or not the community can maintain this breakneck progress past the meme coin hysteria.

“Solana is recovering extra steadily than most main rivals and reveals 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% prior to now 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