The price of Solana (SOL) rose 13% over the past seven days, trading at $218 on November 14.
Solana’s price rose 43% from a low of $156 on November 5, reaching a two-year high of $225 on November 12, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView. The -1 token could continue to rise towards its all-time high of $260, especially after Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed $90,000 and hit a new all-time high of $93,434.
SOL/USD daily chart. source: TradingView
This upward momentum is consistent with the broader cryptocurrency market rally and strong fundamentals within the Solana ecosystem.
Let’s take a look at what could push SOL to all-time highs.
SOL price backed by strong on-chain metrics
SOL’s strength last week can be attributed to increased investor confidence due to Solana’s on-chain activity, evidenced by increased weekly trading volume for Solana-based DEXes.
Solana’s weekly DEX trading volume surged to an all-time high of $26.1 billion in the week ending November 11, up 43% from $18.1 billion the previous week. Notably, Solana holds a 37% market share, surpassing Ethereum, the leading DApp-centric blockchain, with $13 billion in DEX trading volume for the week ending November 11th.
Solana Weekly DEX Volume, USD. Source: DefiLlama
Solana has also seen an increase in total value locked (TVL) in smart contracts, which means increased user interaction and demand for SOL tokens.
Solana’s TVL rose to $7.9 billion by November 13, up 460% year-on-year and the highest since December 2021, according to additional data from DefiLlama. Liquid staking from Jito, Raydium, Marinade, and Binance contributed significantly to Solana’s deposit growth.
Total value locked in Solana, USD. Source: DefiLlama
These on-chain indicators provide reliable evidence that layer 1 networks are attracting users beyond the memecoin craze, suggesting that the price of SOL may rise further.
Solana open interest hits all-time high
The price rise in SOL over the past week has been accompanied by an increase in leveraged positions, with total open interest (OI) on Solana futures hitting an all-time high on November 12th.
Open interest in SOL futures soared to $4.54 billion on November 12, up 57% from the previous week, according to data from CoinGlass. This reflects the strong adoption of SOL derivatives and signals growing institutional interest, but also potential risks.
Solana futures incorporate open interest SOL. Source: Coinglass
Despite the higher risk of forced liquidation in the event of a SOL price correction, derivatives data points to the potential for further upside.
Solana-based memecoins will blink green.
Solana’s rally on November 14 coincided with an ongoing correction in the price of memecoins on the Solana network. As shown in the figure below, most are recording double-digit daily increases.
Solana-based token performance. Source: CoinGecko
For example, Dogwifhat (WIF), the leading Solana memecoin by market capitalization, is up more than 42% in 24 hours. Likewise, Bonk (BONK), Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), and Popcat (POPCAT) are up 20%, 42%, and 32%, respectively, over the past day, according to data from CoinGecko.
According to additional data provided by the Dune Analytics dashboard Pump, SOL’s price rise specifically on November 14 followed a sharp increase in the number of transactions distributed on the network.
The chart below shows that daily transactions on the Solana blockchain increased from 24,140 to 36,053 from November 9 to November 13.
Solana’s distributed transaction performance chart. Source: Pump.Fun
The increase in memecoin activity and on-chain transactions on Solana indicates high network activity and increased adoption. More user interaction with the platform increases transaction and network usage, increases demand for SOL and positively impacts price.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. All investment and trading activities involve risk and readers should conduct their own research when making any decisions.