Solana (SOL) Touches New All-Time High
Solana (SOL) has regained most of its positions in the past weeks, and is set to attempt a new all-time high. Just as Bitcoin (BTC) is taking a breather at around $63,000, other assets are also showing their strength.
SOL follows the success of Ethereum (ETH), which reached a high at $4,366.09 with effects on the overall DeFi ecosystem. Ahead of the weekend, SOL climbed to $204.61, gaining another 11% in the past day net, after touching levels above $207 for a new all-time high during Asian trading hours.
SOL trading volumes touched a monthly high above $7.1B. The most active SOL trading pair on Binance reached a daily volume of $1.6B in the past day. Over European trading hours, SOL moved around $203-204, extending its weekly gain to more than 28%.
SOL lines up among the best performers for 2021, even with its lower market cap in September. The new network managed highly active growth in the past months, surpassing older and more prominent tokens. At the current $63B market capitalization, the Solana project has added to its success track record.
What is Driving SOL
One of the reasons for the success of SOL is its outright visibility as the sixth largest digital asset by market capitalization. SOL is capable of offering significant returns, with the most recent rally extended from a low of $148 on October 10.
The total value locked in Solana and all related projects is now above $12B, reaching the range to compete with the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem.
The Solana ecosystem now contains 211 projects, of which 91 are DeFi related, and there are 40 collections and NFT ecosystems. Those projects boost the demand for SOL to pay fees and participate in various forms of trading and passive income generation.
Solana Partners with Terra
One of the big advantages of Solana is the network’s capability to carry multiple tokens from other blockchains. This opens the Solana market for more potential users.
Solana has partnered to bridge Terra USD (UST) to its own DeFi projects, through the Wormhole bridge. The announcement also boosted the position of Terra (LUNA), which is up to $44.79, adding another 7% in the past day and speeding up its price recovery.
Additionally, the OKEx exchange now accepts stablecoins in their Solana-based versions. The Solana network can transfer USDT and USDC faster and cheaper in comparison to Ethereum-based tokens, thus opening the door to wider retail adoption.
The Solana network is also one of the tools to arbitrage between USDT and USDC, the two most prevalent dollar-pegged coins. With low gas fees, that arbitrage to switch between protocols allows for meaningful gains, especially in liquidity pools containing only stablecoins.
Can Solana Follow the ETH Run
In the most optimistic predictions, the Solana community envisions SOL prices at $1,000. One of the reasons is that Solana may turn into one of the networks to repeat the success of Ethereum. For now, however, Solana is far behind in terms of project and token building.
Even Binance Coin (BNB), which has helped boost hundreds of projects, lags at around $500, far from the success of ETH.
One of the most significant bids of Solana is the potential for new NFT airdrops, at much lower gas fee rates compared to Ethereum. NFT collections drop almost every day for SOL owners, with relatively low prices at 0.1 SOL. The best approach is to own SOL in one of the personally controlled wallets. NFTs cannot be sent to users who store SOL on exchanges.
Solana Trading Takes Over on Increasing Hype
The recent SOL rally turned the asset into the third most actively traded coin on the Binance exchange. SOL saw increased activity to about 25% of the most active ETH/USDT pair on Binance.
The SOL rally displaced previous hot assets, especially Shiba Inu (SHIB), which briefly took the top spot as the most traded token on Binance.
SOL is also unique for having a collection of influential fiat pairings. The SOL/USD pair on Coinbase and the Kraken exchange pair help make the share of direct fiat inflows at more than 29% of all SOL activity.
Another 42% hinges on trades against USDT, the chief source of liquidity for most digital assets on both centralized and decentralized exchanges.
SOL breakouts in 2021 may coincide with other assets reawakening, especially if BTC stagnates once again around a price range. For now, the SOL ecosystem tokens remain riskier and more volatile, relying mostly on low-liquidity exchanges.
Other assets getting a boost may include Avalanche (AVAX), as well as other platform-related tokens with goals similar to Solana. Tokens of interest include recently rallying Fantom (FTM), Polygon (MATIC), Polkadot (DOT).
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