Review of Solana Price and Ecosystem in February 2024

About Solana

Founded in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana is an open-source blockchain platform focused on scalability and speed. It aims to outperform existing blockchains in transaction processing without compromising on cost-effectiveness. Solana achieves this through a unique Layer 1 network architecture, allowing it to handle over 710,000 transactions per second (TPS).

This architecture also facilitates the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps), making it suitable for various use cases like decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) marketplaces.

Launched in 2020 after extensive testing, Solana stands out from platforms like Ethereum by avoiding the need for additional scaling solutions. Instead, it utilizes powerful and fast computers to maintain the network and manage data storage. SOL, the native cryptocurrency of Solana, plays a crucial role in enabling transactions and securing the network through staking.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the Solana ecosystem in February 2024, analyzing SOL price performance, ecosystem developments, and updates.

Solana On-chain Data and SOL Price Performance

Between February 6 and February 26, the daily transaction volume on Solana increased significantly, going from 22.1 million to 33.7 million. It appears that the Solana blockchain is becoming more popular, as evidenced by the increase in activity. But by the month’s end, the daily volume of transactions had fallen again, reaching 28.5 million.

Although there was a noticeable impact on transaction processing due to a 5-hour interruption on February 6th, the market recovered quickly, and activity picked up speed as the disruption was fixed.

According to Solana’s exhaustive analysis that Anza prepared, a problem with older programs was the root cause of the Mainnet outage. Throughout February, the price of SOL varied. It hit a low of $95 on February 4 but then recovered by over 27% to close the month at around $130. The perceived affordability and ease of use of the network, as well as the numerous airdrops that took place, were the two main drivers of the price hike for SOL.

Compared to networks that are compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), Solana promises speedier development and update implementation, even though it experienced an outage recently. Although the February outage affected DApp usage and exchange halts for SOL and Solana SPL token transactions, the price of SOL was unaffected, possibly because Solana has shorter development cycles.

Solana Ecosystem Updates And Acquisitions

In the thirty days following the opening of registration, Solana Mobile’s Chapter 2 smartphone had 100,000 preorders by February 12th. Early 2025 is when the cellphones will be available for purchase. When compared, the first 20,000 Solana Saga cell phones took nearly a year to sell.

Helius raised $9.5 million to support its platform and provide tools for Solana blockchain developers. The capital will go toward expanding the engineering team, refining existing technologies, and bringing new developers into the Solana ecosystem. The Worldcoin project’s primary developer, Tools for Humanity, has announced that it has acquired Ottr Finance, a digital wallet firm based in Solana. As the organization shifts its focus to aiding Tools for Humanity in establishing the Worldcoin project, Ottr Wallet will discontinue operations. In a $25 million Series A investment in crypto mobile payment business Oobit, CMCC Global, 468 Capital, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko were all involved. The goal of Oobit is to facilitate the use of cryptocurrencies in everyday purchases.

To make the Solana blockchain more stable and scalable, the developers also worked with Filecoin. A marketplace for decentralized data storage. The collaboration will strengthen Solana’s dedication to decentralization by allowing it to use Filecoin’s infrastructure to increase data redundancy, scalability, and security.

In addition, Web3 developers were also invited to participate in the Renaissance global hackathon, which was organized by the Solana Foundation. From March 4th to April 8th, 2024, there will be a hackathon where participants can vie for a portion of a $1 million prize pool in addition to pre-seed money.

Solana Meme Coins

In the last week of February, trading activity for various meme coins was based on the Solana blockchain. As Bonk (BONK) and DogWifHat (WIF), also increased significantly, following SOL’s price rises.

On February 29th, the price of BONK was $0.00002364, up 110% from February 23rd, and on February 29th, the price of WIF was $0.856420, up 25%. The news of a potential listing on the Revolut trading platform caused the BONK price to rise.

Revolut would start a “Learn and Earn Campaign” to bring in half a million new Bonk users as part of the planned partnership. Involvement from Revolut, which has 38 million users in more than 50 countries, may greatly increase Bonk’s user base, should the deal materialize.

Smog (SMOG), is a new dragon-themed coin based on Solana. That debuted on Jupiter DEX on February 7 and h is likewise seeing a rise in attention. Upon its introduction, its price increased by more than 3,000%, drawing in more than 30,000 holders. Staking rewards are being offered by the project at the moment. And an airdrop is being planned to transfer some of the token supply to the community.

Solana Airdrops and DEXs

Several initiatives on the Solana blockchain have. The potential to repeat the success of the Jupiter exchange’s profitable JUP airdrop in January.

Three of Solana’s most promising projects. The open-source decentralized exchange (DEX) Drift Protocol. The decentralized real estate trading protocol Parcl. The decentralized derivatives exchange Zeta—are getting ready for airdrops soon, providing exciting new ways for users to get involved with DeFi.

Drift Protocol

Drift has established itself as a prominent player in the DeFi industry with a substantial $3.8 million in seed funding and a later $23.5 million Series A round. The “Drift Trader Points” system is new to Drift. Users can earn prizes based on their platform activity, such as trade volume and liquidity provision. Staking for insurance funds and super staking will be given to customers at the end of the season. The program will conclude at the end of March with a summary of prior activity.

There was a record-breaking 300 million USD in daily trade volume and user activity on Drift on February 13th. The company’s TVL was a whopping 182.7 million on February 29.

Parcel

With an eye toward community involvement and potential protocol features, Parcl has announced the release of PRCL, its utility and governance token. Additionally, Parcel boasts over 140,000 customers and $111.2 million in TVL, demonstrating considerable growth.
There was a record-breaking 300 million USD in daily trade volume and user activity on Drift on February 13th. The company’s TVL was a whopping 182.7 million on February 29.

Zeta

With an eye toward community involvement and potential protocol features, Parcl has announced the release of PRCL, its utility and governance token. Additionally, Parcel boasts over 140,000 customers and $111.2 million in TVL, demonstrating considerable growth.
There was a record-breaking 300 million USD in daily trade volume and user activity on Drift on February 13th. The company’s TVL was a whopping 182.7 million on February 29.

Io.net

Io.net is a Solana-based DePIN project that aims to source GPU computing capacity. Has also introduced a rewards scheme in preparation for the launch of its coin.

Magnify

With a TVL of $533.5 million, Marginfi is a Solana decentralized lending system. It recently announced that early development for its decentralized stablecoin, YBX, is complete. YBX is scheduled to deploy on the main net in late March.

Jupiter

Open for applications is Jupiter Exchange’s LFG launchpad; it is the biggest DEX aggregator on Solana. To choose which project will be listed on the LFG launchpad. The Jupiter DAO, JUP holders, and the community can evaluate these applications.

Solana NFTs and Games

In February, among the NFT ecosystem’s blockchain networks, Solana ranked third. February saw the all-time sales volume of NFTs based in Solana approach $5 billion, marking a new milestone.

In February, the sales volume for NFTs located in Solana hit $218 million, according to data from CryptoSlam. In addition, the numbers showed that in February, the Solana network had about 197k NFT suppliers and 433k buyers. In February, Solana processed more than 3.8 million NFT transactions. The Solana NFT ecosystem is becoming increasingly active, as shown by the high volume of transactions.

But a handful of collections—like Froganas, Tensorians, and MadRug—were responsible for a disproportionate share of the trade volume.

Quickly rising to the position of top NFT marketplace on Solana. Tensor now handles more than 70% of all NFT trades on the platform, with $3 million in seed funding. Tensor is well-positioned in the market and might be valued at a level comparable to Blur. The leading NFT marketplace on Ethereum.

In the past few months, Tensor’s trading volume has multiple times exceeded Blur’s, demonstrating the increasing influence and potential valuation of Tensor.

Notable Solana NFT launches in February

Looking Ahead – Will SOL’s Price Continue to Ascend?

In February 2024, there were significant developments and difficulties in the Solana ecosystem. Solana’s TVL hit a major milestone of $2.5 billion, which is a 30% rise from the beginning of the year.

Another new high for the SOL price occurred on February 29th, when it hit $130. The Solana blockchain’s perceived benefits in price and ease of use, together with many airdrops. Were the driving forces behind this? Solana showed endurance during a five-hour network outage on February 6. The daily transaction volume reflected the rising involvement.

Several developments occurred inside Solana’s ecosystem, such as Helius raising $9.5 million in Series A capital and the successful preorder of Solana Mobile’s Chapter 2 smartphone. A dedication to innovation and collaboration within the Web3 area was shown by Solana’s partnerships with Filecoin and the establishment of the Renaissance hackathon.

Trade volume in DogWifHat, Bonk, and the recently released Smog, three meme coins on Solana, surged. The ever-changing Solana blockchain was seen in the dramatic price increases of these coins. The decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on Solana attracted a lot of attention and money. Since they were the most promising ventures offering airdrops.

With Tensor as the top NFT marketplace, Solana’s NFT ecosystem thrived and hit a new record of $5 billion in all-time sales volume.

Despite setbacks like the network outage and high trading volume in specific NFT collections, Solana is still a thriving ecosystem that is always improving. Its course in 2024 will be heavily influenced by further breakthroughs in DeFi, gaming, and NFTs.