The Solana blockchain’s native token SOL broke $100 Saturday, reclaiming a price level not seen since the eve of Terra’s collapse a year and a half ago.
At press time SOL was valued at around $102 a coin. It has increased in value more than tenfold in 2023 and is up over 70% in December alone, according to CoinDesk Indices.
Saturday’s price action capped weeks of frenzied trading that have – at least temporarily – vaulted the Solana blockchain up the leaderboard for on-chain activity. Solana-based decentralized exchanges are nearing Uniswap’s multibillion-dollar trading volumes for the first time, according to DeFiLlama.
Much of that energy is being driven by rampant speculation. Some of the most popular crypto assets being traded on Solana right now are dog-themed memecoins. But airdrops, too, are prompting droves of traders to test out Solana-based lenders, bridges and other infrastructure.
Solana is a smart contracts platform that supports fast and cheap crypto transactions. It has been compared to Ethereum, which despite Solana’s ascendence, is still the most popular and best-known place for crypto traders to play on-chain.
