Driven by the recent NFT and DeFi craze, Solana’s SOL set its all-time high earlier today. According to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency is up 12.62% and 70.86% in the past 24 hours and the past week, respectively.
SOL’s explosive growth led to the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization soaring to over $43 billion — surpassing Dogecoin to become the 7th largest token in the world.
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Solana (SOL) Now Up Approximately 8,000% YTD, Surpassing BTC, ETH
Solana’s unexpected rise can certainly be attributed to the broader crypto market recovering; however, the now 7th largest cryptocurrency is up 70.86% in the past week, whereas Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are up 1.44% and 20.79%, respectively.
It’s safe to say that there were other factors that led to Solana’s unexpected rise — mainly the resurgence of the non-fungible token (NFT) space.
While NFTs were all the rage earlier this year, the interest in the space fizzled out when Bitcoin and Ethereum plummeted over 50% between May and June. According to data from NonRarible.com, monthly sales volume dropped from $520 million to as low as $59 million in the same time period — marking a near 80% decline.
However, as celebrities and superstar athletes bring the spotlight to the “meta verse,” the NFT space is back stronger than ever, setting new records. The month of August saw a total trading volume of $3 billion, which is up nearly 1000% from July’s $325 million.
So it’s no coincidence that Solana tripled in price when it launched NFT project Degenerate Ape Academy, opening the door for other NFT projects to build upon SOL’s blockchain.
Now, there are over 36 unique projects, including Solarian, Sollamas, Solania, and Solana Monkey Business, among others.
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“Solana’s popularity… has seen unprecedented price action on the back of strong mindshare growth, a flurry of decentralized application launches and, most recently, the frenzy around their Kaiju cards NFT launch,” said Jehan Chu, co-founder, and managing partner at blockchain trading firm Kenetic Capital.
Solana’s ever expanding ecosystem is thriving. Its scalability and cheap transaction fees (relative to Ether) have also been a plus to investors. However, it remains to be seen whether the cryptocurrency can hold onto its recent rally.
Featured image from UnSplash