During the bull season of 2021, cryptocurrency investors reaped massive gains from their early investments. Many altcoins have increased in value by tens of times from their 2020 lows, reaching historical highs in 2021. Ethereum‘s favorite competitor, who targeted $500 back then, significantly melted because of losing its institutional investors. So what now?
Current Status of Solana (SOL)
Despite facing numerous network interruptions, bridging of leading NFTs to other networks, and loss of institutional investors, Solana manages to stay afloat. High speed and low transaction fees will continue to be a requirement for users in the future. In this respect, Solana has a significant advantage and manages to attract users to its network despite all the adversity.
Recent data from Artemis indicates that the number of new contracts launched on Solana is increasing rapidly. Since the beginning of 2023, active contracts on the network have peaked. This signifies significant growth and increased activity in the Solana ecosystem. Solana maintains its position as a good alternative for various decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contract development.
Future of SOL Coin
The increase in the number of smart contracts is excellent, but there hasn’t been a significant change in the network’s value. There continues to be a noticeable decline in terms of Total Locked Value (TVL). Additionally, there’s been a significant decrease in the volumes of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on Solana, which indicates decreased interest in Solana’s DEXs.
In the NFT sector, there’s been a significant decline in the volume of Solana NFTs traded. Despite this decline, the total base value of Solana NFTs has remained relatively stable, and no significant value loss has been observed.
The decrease in NFT trading volume can be attributed to the dominant negative sentiment surrounding Solana within the crypto community. Santiment’s data reveals a significant drop in weighted sentiment, indicating that negative comments currently outweigh positive ones.
The recent delisting of SOL from the Bakkt exchange also contributed to the negative atmosphere. Moreover, the ongoing interest in alternatives like Aptos, SUI reminds investors that Solana is no longer as unique as it once was.
According to data provided by Staking Rewards, the number of users staking SOL increased by 2.84% last month. This shows that, despite all the negatives, there’s slow growth in the investor base. At this stage, the Solana team needs to focus on the expected network improvements and distinguish themselves among new competitors. Otherwise, the remaining users of the network abandoned by institutions may move to competitors where they believe they will achieve better gains in the long term.
