The recent network upgrade of Solana has further solidified its position as a web3 hub, addressing the problem of transaction congestion. However, the price of Solana (SOL) has been in a bearish trend for the past five weeks, mirroring the overall crypto industry’s anticipation of a bullish signal from Bitcoin.
Solana’s network has gained significant traction in the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization sector. With over $3.2 billion in stablecoin market cap and more than $20 billion in bridged total value locked (TVL), Solana has surpassed Binance Smart Chain (BSC) in these areas. The measure of bridged TVL is crucial as it indicates the interoperability level of the underlying DeFi platforms of a layer one chain.
Visa, a major payment card services company, has highlighted the rising demand for Solana-based stablecoins. According to Visa’s on-chain data, Solana has outperformed other layer-one chains in terms of stablecoin transactions in the past 30 days. Ethereum, surprisingly, had less than 20 million stablecoin transactions during this period. Other chains with similar low transaction volumes include Tron, Avalanche, and Optimism. In contrast, Solana recorded over 120 million stablecoin transactions, with Binance Smart Chain being its closest competitor with around 70 million transactions.
Specifically, Circle’s USDC on the Solana network has registered more than 1.23 billion transactions since January 2023, amounting to approximately $4.59 trillion. Solana has also seen 166 million transactions in Tether’s USDT, worth about $278 billion. Overall, Solana accounted for the majority of the 352 million stablecoin transactions, totaling about $2.3 trillion, in the past month.
Solana’s success can be attributed to its thriving ecosystem for meme coins and other web3 projects. The market data reveals that Solana-based meme coins have a combined valuation of around $7 billion and an average daily trading volume of approximately $1 billion. Additionally, the Solana core developers have been actively working on a network upgrade to enhance adoption and compete with other web3-based blockchains.
Despite its recent bearish sentiment, Solana’s price has experienced significant growth, increasing by over 500 percent in the past year to reach around $136 as of April 29, 2024. From a technical standpoint, as long as the support level around $124 remains intact, the SOL price against the US dollar is expected to continue its upward trajectory. Furthermore, if the ETH/BTC pair continues to rebound in the coming weeks, SOL price is likely to lead other altcoins in a generally bullish market.
In conclusion, Solana has emerged as a prominent web3 hub, surpassing its competitors in stablecoin transactions and demonstrating its potential for growth. The recent network upgrade and the thriving ecosystem of meme coins have further contributed to Solana’s success. Despite the recent bearish trend, SOL price remains optimistic, with potential for further gains in a bullish market.