Optimism (op) 
Solana Price Dips Despite Record $258 Billion Milestone
Solana’s price took a sharp downturn over the weekend, despite the network achieving a record $258 billion milestone in January. The cryptocurrency dropped to $210 on Sunday, marking a nearly 30% decline from its highest level this year, with its market cap falling to $103 billion. At the time of writing, SOL is hovering around $212.
Crypto Market Sell-Off
The ongoing sell-off in the crypto industry has seen most coins turn red. Bitcoin briefly dipped below $100,000, while the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies plummeted by almost 4% to $3.4 trillion. This downturn has affected various cryptocurrencies, including Solana.
Solana’s Record-Breaking Month
According to recent data, protocols in the Solana ecosystem handled over $258 billion in volume in January, a record high. This increase brought the total volume handled in the network to over $969 billion. If this trend continues, Solana may cross the $1 trillion milestone in February, with the network currently handling over $40 billion a week.
Key Players in Solana’s DEX Ecosystem
The biggest players in the Solana DEX ecosystem were Orca, Meteora, Lifinity, and Raydium, with the latter having a 30-day volume of over $120 billion during the month.
Meme Coin Launches Drive Growth
Various meme coin launches, including President Donald Trump’s Official Trump, drove growth across the network. Official Trump became one of the biggest meme coin launches on record, with its market cap surging to over $15 billion before dropping 70% from its peak. Other top meme coin launches in January included Melania and Vine.
Solana Loses Momentum
Despite the growth, Solana has lost momentum, with the number of active Solana wallets dropping to 3.6 million, down from 6.5 million on January 19. The market cap of all Solana meme coins has also slipped to $14 billion from last month’s high of $25 billion.
Solana Price Chart Analysis
The daily chart shows that the SOL price has crashed in the past few days, retreating from the year-to-date high of $295.4 on January 19 to the current $213, its lowest swing since January 17. The coin has moved below the 50-day moving average and the key support at $223, its highest swing on January 6.
Hope for a Solana ETF
Recently, Cboe BZX refiled applications for multiple asset managers, including Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares, and Canary Capital. This marks Cboe’s second attempt after a previous rejection, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission now reviewing the filings under a more crypto-friendly administration.
Polymarket bettors put Solana ETF approval odds at 57% by July 31, though Bloomberg analysts suggest Litecoin could be next in line. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have already drawn billions, signaling strong demand for crypto investment products.
“Solana’s unique ‘proof of history’ protocol will make it a market leader,” says analyst Knox Ridley of I/O Fund.
Ridley believes that Solana’s blockchain, which enables a high throughput of 65,000 transactions per second without second layers, will make it faster and more efficient than Ethereum’s protocol, proof of stake.
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