Solana’s performance can be said to have left Ethereum behind at an astonishing speed. At around 11 a.m. today, SOL broke through $260, setting a new all-time high. Currently, its market value has exceeded $122.5 billion, making it the second public chain after Ethereum to have a market value of over $100 billion.
The strong rise of SOL also led to the explosion of the entire ecosystem. The re-staking protocol JTO rose by more than 24% and is now priced at $3.4; the DEX protocol RAY rose by more than 12% and is now priced at $6.2; JUP also rose by more than 7% and is now priced at $1.1.
From $8 at the bottom of the last bear market to today's high, SOL's return rate has exceeded 30 times. What is the real strength of SOL behind this wave of growth?
Impressive data performance
Today, Solana has taken a path of its own. Whether it is AI, DeFi, or staking, it has its own star ecological projects, and its overall performance is remarkable.
According to data from solscan, Solana's TPS (transactions per second) currently remains at around 3,000, and the network performance is relatively stable.
As one of the core indicators, Solana's performance in terms of active wallet addresses is also very eye-catching. Although the overall market has entered a downward trend since the middle of this year, this does not seem to have a big impact on the number of Solana's active wallets. On the contrary, the number of active addresses has soared from the initial 1 million to a maximum of 8.8 million, showing strong ecological vitality.
In terms of activity, Solana rebounded quickly after a brief slump, and now the number of new accounts has exceeded 20 million.
The meme wave is coming
“Not participating in the Solana meme is like not touching DeFi in the last cycle.”
It can be said that the Meme craze in this bull market is almost all staged in the Solana ecosystem, and countless meme projects and wealth effects have emerged. As the native token supporting the Meme project, SOL naturally becomes the core of market demand. On the one hand, investors' enthusiasm for Meme has directly promoted related trading activities; on the other hand, this has also indirectly increased the market demand for SOL, boosting the continued rise in the price of the currency.
Since September this year, the priority transaction fee on the Solana chain has soared from around 3,000 to 55,000, a 15-fold increase. This part of the priority transaction fee is a true reflection of investors’ enthusiasm for the Meme on the Solana chain.
According to CoinMarketCap data, projects with a market value of more than $1 billion include BONK, WIF, POPCAT, and PUNT. Projects with a market value between $100 million and $1 billion include GOAT, MEW, BOME, ACT, LUCE, ai16Z, MICHI, and dozens of others. The performance of these projects is not only ahead of Ethereum, but even far exceeds the latecomer Base Chain.
Hopes of Solana spot ETF approval increase
After the Ethereum spot ETF was approved in the middle of this year, investors' expectations for the Solana spot ETF also increased. However, in August, the SEC rejected the Solana spot ETF application submitted by Cboe, causing the process to be temporarily shelved.
But the situation took a turn for the better on November 21. According to FOX Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, people familiar with the matter revealed that SEC staff are in talks with institutions that want to issue SOL spot ETFs, and some progress has been made. It is said that in the next few days, the exchange may submit key 19b-4 documents on behalf of potential issuers, which is the next step in the ETF approval process.
The regulatory environment may be changing
As Trump is about to take office in the White House, the market expects that the strict regulation of the crypto industry in the United States may be eased. At the same time, it was reported on November 22 that the current SEC Chairman Gary will leave office on January 20 next year, which is also Trump's inauguration day.
It is worth mentioning that Chris Giancarlo, known as the "Godfather of Crypto", may become a popular candidate for the new SEC Chairman. Giancarlo is the former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and one of the initiators of the digital dollar project. He has deep experience in Web3 and digital currency, and has participated in discussions on cryptocurrencies, CBDCs, and stablecoins many times. He emphasized that these emerging technologies are crucial to the future of finance.
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, once commented: “With the change in leadership at the U.S. president and SEC, 2025 could be the year when anything is possible.”
How high can Solana rise in the future?
Trader Eugene Ng Ah Sio believes that Solana’s price is expected to rise to $500 to $1,000. In a social media post at the end of September this year, he mentioned that the second phase of this bull market has begun, so now is the time to set a goal. He emphasized that although it is difficult to predict the peak price of the bull market, based on the current situation, he gave a rough expectation, assuming that Trump wins the election and the US economy has a smooth soft landing.
The specific price ranges are as follows:
Bitcoin (BTC): $100,000 - $200,000
Ethereum (ETH): $4,000 - $6,000
Solana (SOL): $500-$1,000
Total Crypto Market Cap: $5 Trillion - $10 Trillion
VanEck, a US asset management giant, is also optimistic about Solana. In a report on September 25, VanEck predicted that Solana’s price could reach $330, which was about 50% of Ethereum’s market value at the time.
