Solana ecosystem weathers market storm as geopolitical tensions spark crypto selloff, yet DeFi and NFTs show resilience.
Last month’s Singapore Sling saw crypto markets fly on the back of several high-profile conferences in the nation city. This week, a delayed hangover kicked in hard across the entire crypto sector, even as a traditionally bullish Q4 is finally here and the US elections are around the corner.
Did we get front-run again?
While it didn’t help that Bitcoin again couldn’t find support above $65k, the big culprit is likely again something completely out of the industry’s control: Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have tanked all markets, with risk-on assets especially hard hit.
It has unfortunately also halted Solana’s post-Breakpoint momentum, and the SOL token and the ecosystem it supports have seen drops on all fronts over the past 7 days.
For those of us who've been here a minute, it’s just another day in crypto, and this too shall pass (hopefully!). While it presents a lot of risk, there’s also plenty of opportunity out there right now if you know where to look (not financial advice).
Here’s how Solana performed this week.
Solana Numbers The Last 7 Days
- Price: $137.49, down 8.81%
- Market cap: $63.94 billion
- DeFi TVL: $5.275 billion
- Daily active addresses: >4 million
- 24h trading volume: $2,6 billion
How Did Solana Stack Up Against Its Competitors?
If we look at the top 5 cryptocurrencies excluding stablecoins, we can see that Solana’s drop is in line with the rest of the market.
Solana Ecosystem The Last Week
Over the last 7 days, market cap peaked mid-week, followed by a decline towards the end, with moderate trading volume.
Solana's 9.70% 7-day decline is in line with or better than its biggest ecosystem coins like Chainlink (-14.03%) and Render (-14.96%).
The top 20 Solana ecosysten tokens tell the story:
Top Gainers:
- Wormhole (W): +23.47%
- Bonk (BONK): +8.94%
- Raydium (RAY): +3.30%
Top Losers:
- GMT: -22.23%
- Cat in a dogs world (MEW): -22.49%
- Arweave (AR): -21.02%
- The Graph (GRT): -16.39%
- BOOK OF MEME (BOME): -16.70%
Solana DeFi
On the plus side, Solana maintains a significant TVL of $5.275 billion in its DeFi ecosystem.
Overall, the Solana DeFi sector is holding strong despite broader market turbulence.
Jupiter leads with a minimal 0.28% 7-day decline, while Marinade sees the largest drop at 5.72%.
The sector maintains robust TVLs across major protocols, which suggests sustained user confidence.
Solana Meme Coins
- Gigachad (GIGA) and Daddy Tate (DADDY) led the pack, up 31% and 45%.
- Bonk (BONK) saw moderate gains, increasing by 4.32%
- Several coins experienced sharp declines, including cat in a dogs world (MEW) and BOOK OF MEME (BOME), down 24.34% and 20.20%, respectively.
- Dogwifhat (WIF) and Popcat (SOL) lost 6.14% and 4.95%, reflecting general market caution.
- Michi (SOL) shed 35.45%, making it one of the worst-performing meme coins in this period.
Note: Extreme volatility with weekly changes from -35% to +45%. It’s a good idea to wait till market conditions improve.
Solana DePIN
According to DePINScan, the DePIN sector faces challenges across the board.
io.net (IO) experiences the most significant 7-day drop at 20.3%, while telecoms project Helium (HNT) shows the smallest decline at 4.5%. Are we seeing a potential cooling off period after recent hype?
NFTs
According to NFTPulse, in the past 7 days, Solana attracted 31.5K users (23% of total) and generated $168.8K in trading revenue (29%). Despite competition from Base (40.2K users) and Ethereum (21.4K users), Solana remains a strong contender.
For the last year, Solana leads with 1.5M users (36%) and $27.5M in revenue, trailing only Bitcoin in earnings. While recent activity shows steady engagement, its user growth slowed slightly compared to its year-long dominance.
Solana remains competitive, consistently challenging leaders like Ethereum and Polygon in both user base and revenue.
Top 5 Solana News Stories
Mango Markets Settles SEC Charges
Solana-based DeFi platform Mango Markets settled securities charges with the SEC, paying nearly $700,000 in penalties. The settlement includes destroying MNGO tokens and removing them from trading platforms.
Solana DeFi Surges with TVL Milestone
Six Solana-based DeFi protocols have surpassed $1 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) each, signaling a rebound for the ecosystem, with total TVL reaching $5.7 billion, levels last seen in January 2022.
PayPal Stablecoin Supply Declines on Solana
PayPal’s stablecoin, PYUSD, saw its supply on Solana drop 50%, from $660 million to $320 million, as liquidity incentive programs waned and yield farmers sought better opportunities elsewhere.
Solana DApp Activity Boosts SOL Prospects
Solana’s native token, SOL, saw increased network activity, with DApp volumes rising by 46%. Investors remain optimistic despite recent price corrections, supported by low transaction fees and network scalability.
Edward Snowden Slams Solana's Centralization
Edward Snowden criticized Solana’s centralized architecture during TOKEN2049, warning that its structure could lead to vulnerabilities like government control or censorship, contrasting it with Bitcoin’s decentralized design.
What You Can Do Now
- Analyze potential regulatory impacts on Solana DeFi following the Mango Markets settlement.
- Monitor PYUSD movements and liquidity shifts in Solana DeFi protocols.
- Explore opportunities in Solana's ecosystem (carefully!).
- Follow the debate on Solana's architecture sparked by Snowden's comments.
- Watch for developments in Solana's gaming and mobile initiatives.
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