Solana surges more than 30% – Will the weekend’s historic negative sentiment affect its price?

Solana, a prominent crypto, has recently experienced a significant price surge of over 30%. This surge reflects growing confidence and optimism surrounding Solana’s capabilities. However, concerns arise regarding the impact of historic negative sentiment over the weekend on its price movement. 

Mixed sentiments, including cautious optimism and concern, surround SOL currently. Amidst this backdrop, the question arises: Will the historic negative sentiment influence Solana’s price trajectory going forward? This remains a subject of interest and speculation in the crypto market.

Solana registers massive weekly gains

Solana’s native token, SOL, reached its highest point in 23 months on March 1 and is now trading up 34.2% in a week. While Solana is the fourth-largest crypto, excluding stablecoins, it has been closing the gap with its third-place contender, BNB.

Solana (SOL) is currently trading at $129.68, up 0.4% from an hour ago and down 4.3% from yesterday. The value of SOL now is 30.2% more than it was 7 days ago.

According to Binance, the live price of BNB is $409.28 per (BNB / USD), with a current market capitalization of $61.20 billion USD. The 24-hour trading volume is $1.54 billion USD. BNB is up 0.96% in the previous 24 hours, with a circulating supply of 149.54 million.

The essential question is: What powered SOL’s rally, and more importantly, can this outperformance against competitors be sustained? Several elements, including market conditions, price action, developments, supply, and use cases, will influence whether Solana’s SOL price rises or falls over the weekend.

Based on its behavior at the start of 2024, crypto experts predict the price of Solana SOL for the weekend. For this timeframe, SOL’s minimum price is expected to be $116.25, with a high of $131.59.

SOL’s market performance

According to an article published in The New York Times on February 27, Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, the jailed former CEO of the defunct FTX exchange, has been encouraging prison guards to invest in SOL.

Over the last few months, SOL’s price has been seeking to solidify its $100 support. As a result, claiming that the bull run began before February 23rd is false. In truth, SOL saw a 2% growth from December 23, 2023, and February 23, 2024.

In addition to the significant gains in SOL, a number of Solana SPL memecoins have seen a large increase in demand in the last week. Bonk has increased by 110% since February 23, whereas DogWifHat (WIF) has rallied by 250% in the same time frame.

For example, memecoin Pepe is up 17.7%, Bonk is up 5.4%, and Dogecoin is down roughly 3% within the same time period.

According to CoinGecko, the whole memecoin market capitalization has increased by 8.3%, while the overall global cryptocurrency market capitalization has increased by only 0.1%.

The latest price moves follow a successful week for memecoins in general. Dogwifhat has increased by 237% in the last week, while Pepe and Bonk have grown by 174.7% and 98.8%, respectively. The leading memecoin, Dogecoin, has “lagged” with a 47.7% gain.

Solana’s TVL

To determine whether the current jump in SOL’s price has been accompanied by increasing demand for the token, one could examine Solana network indicators. SOL is essential to DEX trade, staking solutions, nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces, and other decentralized applications (DApps) like gambling, games, and social networks.

The total value locked (TVL) in Solana’s smart contracts can influence SOL’s pricing. A greater TVL indicates increased user engagement and desire for Solana-based DApps, which could drive demand and influence prices positively.

Solana’s recent data demonstrates a significant accomplishment: Its TVL has achieved its greatest level since November 2022, with 40.7 million SOL, representing a 30% year-to-date rise in 2024. SOL’s TVL sits at $2.498 billion.

This demonstrates Solana’s success in generating greater activity for DApps than other platforms. Solana’s strong growth is mostly focused on the OpenSea NFT marketplace, which accounts for a significant weekly volume of $7.8 billion, according to DappRadar.