Solana Surges 15%, Eyes $100 Milestone After Surpassing XRP

Just a day after usurping XRP and cementing itself as a top-five coin by market cap, Solana (SOL) appears set to claim another victim. At the time of writing, Solana’s market cap is hovering around USD $40.5 billion (AUD $59.6 billion), barely trailing the fourth-ranked BNB at USD $41.17 billion (AUD $60.55 billion). The coin has burst past the USD $90 barrier and is now eyeing the much-vaunted USD $100 (AUD $147) milestone. If successful, it would be the first time SOL has breached the three-figure mark since April 2022.

It’s been an incredible few months for SOL, which has boomed 25% in the past seven days and 15% overnight. This caps off a remarkable turnaround in 2023, with the token trading nearly 7x higher than it was after the desolation caused by FTX’s collapse and the resulting crypto contagion.

What’s Driving Solana’s Comeback?

Solana was one of the biggest crypto projects on the block in its 2022 heyday. Whispers were circling that the efficient ecosystem was well on its way to overtaking Ethereum as the king of DeFi. But just as quickly as it rose, it fell – as Sam Bankman-Fried’s actions caused FTX and all of its associates (FTX) to feel the pinch. 

But Solana’s fundamentals were always too good to stay down for long. The platform has a burgeoning decentralised ecosystem that doesn’t suffer from the same constraints that competitors like Ethereum do. And as more and more dApps get built by the Solana community, more and more investors are finding utility on the protocol. This is demonstrated by Solana’s blockchain having more on-chain activity (even if only for a day) than Ethereum for the first time ever. The team behind Solana is also creating major partnerships across the industry, including major tech players like Google Cloud. And the blockchain’s newest memecoin, BONK, has enjoyed a meteoric rise spurring renewed (although perhaps short-lived) hype.

For now, that’s exactly what is driving most of Solana’s comeback – hype. But the project is brimming with utility, a thriving community and has all the pieces in place to be a long-standing winner in the crypto sphere.