Well folks, this past week we watched an arrogant, young meme-maker defeat a legend of the game. No, I’m not talking about Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, I’m referring to Ethereum and Solana.
While Solana climbed to a three-year high this week, Ethereum’s market dominance dropped to its lowest since 2021, and fell to a multi-year low against the value of the surging Bitcoin, which continues to test new highs.
Solana — now 4th in the market cap rankings — may not appreciate being compared to the generally unlikeable Jake Paul, however similarities can be found.
Just as Paul made clever use of emergent technologies like social media and YouTube to generate massive publicity and revenue-generating opportunities, so too did Solana capture the growing meme-coin market by supplying the fast, cheap blockchain infrastructure it needed to flourish.
Let’s take a look at how Solana performed this week, and cast an eye on where Solana’s fortunes lie in the coming weeks and months.
Solana Just Dollars Away from All-Time High
The Solana (SOL) coin price increased by 21% over the past seven days, climbing from a spot price of $203 to $246.
The past month has been a fruitful one for Solana, which has seen its value increase 58% from a monthly low of $155. During this time, trade volume exploded from a monthly low of $1.6 billion to over $12 billion — a 650% increase.
Solana’s all-time high — recorded in Nov. 2021 — stands at $260.06. With SOL still climbing at time of writing, a new all-time high could be posted in the coming days.
Analysts have identified $220 as a crucial support zone, and forecasts for the New Year see Solana predicted to reach anywhere between $400 and $1,000.
Meme-Coin Frenzy
The meme-coin market on the Solana network alone is now worth over $22 billion — a value greater than many household name stocks being traded on Wall Street.
Solana-based meme-coins such as Bonk, Dogwifhat, Popcat, Peanut the Squirrel, Goatseus Maximus have all grown to exceed a $1 billion market cap in less than two years since launching.
Notably, trade volume on Solana-based DEXs (decentralized exchanges) was more than double that of Ethereum this month. Solana DEXs have processed $78 billion worth of trades so far in November, while the second-placed Ethereum has processed just $38 billion, as per data from DeFiLlama.
Robinhood Announces Solana Listing
The online brokerage Robinhood expanded its crypto offerings this week with the addition of Solana, along with one of the most popular meme-coins on the Solana network, Pepe (PEPE).
Pepe overtook the likes of Litecoin (LTC) and Stellar (XLM) in the market cap rankings following the announcement, climbing from a weekly low of $0.00001263 to $0.00002475 — a 95% increase which carried Pepe to a new all-time high. The PEPE coin price has since fallen back to the $0.00020 range, leaving it with around 54% growth for the week.
$PEPE & $WIF are forming continuation patterns and looks like it wants to breakout at any given moment
— Alejandro₿TC (@Alejandro_XBT) November 19, 2024
Remember dips are for buying in a bull market pic.twitter.com/1WUHvqrOmw
Solana’s offering of such unique and non-typical financial assets like meme-coins was subtly referenced by Robinhood Vice-President and General Manager, Johann Kerbrat, who said:
“We’ve consistently heard from our customers that they want access to more digital assets, and we’re excited to continue expanding our crypto offering,” adding: “With lower barriers to entry, we believe crypto presents an opportunity for those who have been historically left behind by the traditional financial system.”
Barriers-to-entry in the meme-coin market are certainly low. Most of the meme-coins which make up the $22 billion market segment on Solana were created by users on the Pump.fun platform, which allows anyone to create meme-coins in any manner they see fit.
Van Eck Predicts Solana ETF
Mathew Siegel, Head of Digital Asset Research at asset manager Van Eck, thinks we’ll see a Solana ETF (exchange traded fund) in 2025.
“I think the odds are overwhelmingly high that there will be a Solana ETF trading by the end of next year,” said Siegel in an interview with the Financial Times.
ETFs allow traders to invest without actually purchasing the underlying asset, and lend legitimacy to cryptocurrency assets by opening them up to the average, non-technical investor.
With a new all-time high potentially just hours away, surging DEX volume, new coin listings, and the very real possibility of an ETF launch in the next year, Solana’s outlook has never been rosier.
Kataryna Habeliia
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