As Solana’s $SOL token continues its dazzling bull run, crypto analysts are having to constantly increase their price targets and predictions that sounded outlandish just a few months ago have either come true already or no longer sound so crazy.
$SOL is the native token of the Solana blockchain. Solana is “an open source project implementing a new, high-performance, permissionless blockchain” that is maintained by the Geneva-based Solana Foundation.
According to data by TradingView, on crypto exchange FTX, around 06:19 UTC on September 3, SOL-USD broke through the $140 level (hitting $140.2025) and kept on going, by 7:44 UTC hitting $145.9225, which is so far today’s intraday high and the new all-time high.
This surge helped $SOL flip $DOGE in the market cap table to become the 7th most valuable cryptoasset.
Currently (as 08:40 UTC on September 3), SOL-USD is trading at $118.8250, up 21.53% in the past 24-hour period, which is pretty great considering that BTC-USD is down 0.7% during the same period.
What is even more impressive is how well $SOL has done in 2021. In the year-to-date period, SOL-USD is up a spectacular 9319%. When you consider that $SOL started the year at around $1.51, $SOL is pretty close to achieving a 100X increase in value in 2021.
So, what is behind $SOL’s amazing performance?
Well, first, Bitcoin’s relatively disappointing performance since setting a new all-time high (of around $64,650) on April 14 has given altcoins some breathing room and a chance to shine. Second, among the mega-cap altcoins, the ones that are having the most success right now either have had recent major upgrades, are expecting major upgrades in the near future, or they have a thriving ecosystem.
In the case of Solana, the outstanding support of Sam Bankman-Fried’s quantitative trading firm Alameda Research and crypto exchange FTX, Solana’ rapidly-growing system, especially in the areas of decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), along with the knowledge that Solana is not facing any major technical challenges in the near future and that it is theoretically capable of handling 50,000 transactions per second, seem to be behind $SOL’s success in the crypto market.
Even $ETH fans, such as Ethereum engineering and strategy consultant Ryan Berckmans, are impressed by the wide range of interesting apps being developed for Solana, who commented yesterday on the first Solana-powered algorithmic stablecoin UXD:
As for high $SOL can go, crypto influencer “Wendy O” seems to think that $160 is quite doable in the near future:
Another crypto analyst band influencer — “Crypto Godfather” — believes that $SOL could go to as high $250 during this month:
If $SOL does a 2X from here, that would make its market cap around $84 billion, which would mean that it would have a chance of flipping $BNB and becoming the 4th most valuable cryptocurrency, which is what pseudonymous crypto analyst “Bluntz” seems to be thinking:
As $SOL’s price keeps going higher, interest in Solana is increasing, as you can see by the fact that earlier today $SOL was the most mentioned cryptocurrency on Twitter:
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
