During the recovery of the crypto market in 2023, there was one coin in particular that, after a year, seems to have rewarded the courage of investors: we are obviously talking about Solana (SOL).
Even though many other cryptocurrencies have shown excellent performance, Solana ranks first in one-year yield with a stunning +670%.
Think that by having invested 1000 dollars in SOL in August 2023, you could have exited with 8000 dollars just 12 months later.
The merits of this success are manifold and range from strong DeFi adoption, to airdrop incentives and growth in the memecoin sector.
Let’s see all the details below.
Solana enriches crypto investors between 2023 and 2024
In the last year of trading in the crypto market, Solana has emerged as an asset with the best chart performance, bringing impressive gains to investors.
After the bear market of 2022 that caused SOL prices to plummet amidst the FTX crisis, the coin recovered within a few months
In particular from the bottom of 8 dollars, reached in the last week of 2022, the crypto closed 2023 at 101 dollars with an increase of over 1150%.
In 2024 the Solana coin then continued to print green candles until March, further doubling the price above 200 dollars.
From March to today, it appears instead to be down by about 37%, in a generally bearish scenario for the entire cryptographic market.
As reported by Altcoin Index, if we take as a reference the prices from a year ago (August 26, 2023), Solana is currently up by 670%.
Think that by having invested 1000 dollars in SOL a year ago, today you could have had a token equivalent value of about 8000 dollars. During its “over-year” performance, the value of the crypto asset has indeed soared from 20 to 160 dollars.
This is a huge milestone for the blockchain project, which has seen a significant increase in investor interest in the crypto ecosystem.
The factors that have driven the surge in Solana’s prices over the past year are numerous. Among the main ones, we find the appreciation of retail for low-fee DeFi products and the increase in popularity of some decentralized exchanges like Jupiter.
It is worth noting how several airdrop incentives have pushed many investors to step into the Solana market to gain an economic advantage.
Finally, the development of the memecoin sector, under the influence of platforms like Pump.fun, has played a key role in the appreciation of the entire cryptographic project.
$SOL$SOL has consolidated ~$120-$210 for 180+ days, bouncing between monthly support/resistance.
When this consolidation eventually breaks up, the move is going to be MASSIVE.
Expect a swift move up to ~$400-$500, before advancement to ~$800-$1k+.#SOLANA 
pic.twitter.com/DeqcmbP3YE
— Curb◎ (@CryptoCurb) August 26, 2024
Graphic performance over one year: the comparison with the rest of the market
The performance of the crypto Solana in the eyes of investors appears even more significant when compared to the trend of the rest of the digital token market.
As reported by Altcoin Index, SOL appears to be the best cryptographic asset for price growth over the past year.
Its returns surpass those of the top seeds Bitcoin and Ethereum, which in the same period report gains of 143% and 65% respectively.
Within the high-cap altcoin sector, no coin has managed to match the graphical achievements of Solana.
Dogecoin, Cardano and Uniswap, with investor returns of 74%, 44%, and 38%, are very far from the results of the competitor.
Tron, Avalanche, Chainlink and Internet Computer, although they have achieved gains of more than 100%, do not beat the performance of Solana.
Not even Toncoin and Kaspa, which have seen spectacular increases of 209% and 371% over a year, can compare to the currency known as the “Ethereum Killer”.
In the midst of positive numbers, there are also tokens that have reported performances below expectations. For example, Bitcoin Cash, Polygon, and Litecoin are the only ones with negative investment returns of 0.1%, 5.5%, and 1.5% in a year.
Instead, the price of Near Protocol has remained practically the same from August of last year to today.
At this moment Solana is about 50% away from its own all-time high set at 260 dollars. Some speculate a continuation of the bull market from here until the end of 2025, although the crypto could end the party early, having been one of the first to recover ground in 2023.
We remain waiting to discover in the meantime what the fate of SOL will be in the last quarter of the year, where potentially positive feedback is expected for the entire crypto ecosystem.
Solana: future horizons between crypto ETFs and blockchain developments
One of the issues that most attracts interest in the discussions of Solana crypto investors concerns the possible approval of a spot ETF on US exchanges.
After the debut of the ETF for Bitcoin and Ethereum, the market started to put pressure on a subsequent listing of the same products on the SOL coin.
Recently, however, the SEC postponed the much-anticipated appointment, stating that the crypto could be labeled as a security. The Chicago exchange (CBOE) withdrew the 19b-4 form a few days ago, awaiting the next potential approval event.
Now all eyes are on November 5th, when the SEC will be called to express itself once again on the Solana ETF issue.
Some users, like the investor “Evan_ss6” highlight how the recent SEC rejection coincides with the top of SOL in the chart against ETH.
It is therefore not excluded that from now on the currency may underperform the rest of the market, after having taken on the leading role in the last two years.
Not looking good for Solana
Topped on ETH pair shortly after SEC made it clear no ETF soon, while trenches struggle
Was a good run but gunna need some time and a new admin, all eyes on Nov 5 pic.twitter.com/mYtdq8wrF9
— Evanss6 (@Evan_ss6) September 1, 2024
Determining the future of Solana, there are also other issues related to the infrastructural development of the blockchain on the horizon.
The project indeed attracts many investors precisely because of some characteristics of the chain, such as the high scalability and the cost-effectiveness of transactions.
Compared to Ethereum, Solana appears much more smart, capable of supporting a high TP/s at the cost of less decentralization.
The objective of the project is to further improve its ability to support on-chain requests, reaching the level of international payment circuits such as Visa and Mastercard.
We will see if in the future the blockchain of Solana will be able to maintain the primacy of the most scalable network, growing at a faster pace than other competitors.
