Who could forget the scintillating Solana summer of 2021?
Solana (SOL) started the run at US$1.5, and in a span of just 300 days, rallied all the way up to US$259! That’s an insane 170x!
We all know what happened next. The market took a turn, and Solana suffered a major beat-down, hitting a local low of US$86 as recently as a few days ago, on January 28th, 2021.
Meanwhile, Solana developers have remained as busy as ever: activity remains bullish, and with some major announcements coming to the ecosystem, the bees could be about to make a buzzing return. Which begs the question: are we about to see another Solana season in 2022? If so, what are the top catalysts that could trigger the next leg up??
- The wave is coming.
- Bullish exchange listings.
- Insane NFT growth.
- Phantom comes to iOS – Is this the gateway to mass adoption?
- FUD wears thin, and narratives could be shifting.
The wave is coming.
Solana tweeted just four words and, SOL rallied 17%!
We’ve got to ask: what could they be referring to?
TVL looking strong
The total value locked (TVL) speaks volumes. Solana has around US$8.5 billion locked in its ecosystem. It’s not just about the massive TVL, but also the phenomenal rate of growth that’s worth paying attention to!
But what about the FUD?
After the recent DDOS attack, the TVL took a dive, along with the price of SOL. TVL even went as low as US$7.2 billion, before recovering to current levels. The fact that TVL is booming once again indicates the confidence (and cash!) pouring into the Solana ecosystem.
https://defillama.com/chain/Solana
Recent DDOS attacks only told half the story.
While the FUD was real, and the price followed suit, development activity never stalled for a second.
In the past three months alone, Solana has received 900+ Github commits! To put this figure into perspective, the second most developed project, Trust Wallet (TWT) received only 750 commits. Solana is miles ahead of the pack, and as we know, price is a lagging indicator: it’s only a matter of time before the bees return to the Solana hive!
Developer activity is one thing, but what are the major catalysts that could drive the bees into a frenzy?
OpenSea integration
The NFT giant might be having something to contribute to resurging Solana hype. Opensea, currently on Ethereum, is working on Solana integration! Huge. Opensea has recorded a daily volume of US$220 million. And in January 2022, Opensea broke its monthly fees record, raking in US$386 million. Integration with Solana could be huge for NFT collectors hoping to avoid the punitive gas fees on Ethereum.
Source: https://dune.xyz/rchen8/opensea
Phantom wallet goes mobile!
Phantom is the top Solana wallet with over 2 million users. And it’s just announced it raised US$109 million in a Series B fundraising event.
The really exciting story, however, is that the Phantom wallet is going cross-platform. To be more specific, Phantom just launched on iOS! Within only a single day of launching the new mobile app, Phantom is trending on the Apple store and has already bagged 25th place in the Finance category!
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/phantom-solana-wallet/id1598432977
And to put the icing on the cake, Opensea will add Phantom wallet support too!. NFT trading on the go? Almost sounds like the first baby-steps to mass adoption.
Exchange listings are coming
Solana’s adoption and expansion are undeniable and irresistible. It’s no surprise that centralized exchanges are racing to list more Solana ecosystem tokens. Today (February 1st, 2022), Coinbase is listing two Solana ecosystem tokens: Bonfida and Orca! Which altcoins could they be listing next?
Behind the scenes, Serum is keeping transactions silky smooth!
Along with all this positive news for Solana, its leading DEX, Serum, is showing some super-strong fundamentals, hosting around US$350 million in trading volume over the weekend (January 30th, 2022). Also noteworthy is the fact that all this transaction volume comes from more than 60 Solana dApps!
NFTs going ballistic
Solana’s NFT volume is also at an all-time-high. In the last week alone, Solana NFTs managed a transaction volume of 13 million SOL – roughly US$126 million!. A combination of low transaction fees (and some security issues blighting Ethereum-based OpenSea) make Solana an increasingly hot prospect for NFT traders. The volume speaks for itself!
Banter’s take
Narratives drive crypto trends: Solana had a huge summer in 2021. Many investors made life-changing wealth (and took profits). Then what? Smart investors began looking for the next hot narrative in Layer-1s. We saw the likes of Fantom and Near take off, but as usual, the bees will return to strong projects that continue to improve their network.
Yes, Solana had some issues with some downtime and DDOS attacks, but remember: it’s still technically in the mainnet beta stage, and having to manage this level of volume is mind-blowing, fantastic problem to have! The bees are buzzing, and Solana just needs one more catalyst to kick-start another SOL season. Can you smell the honey, degens?
