Solana Turns into a Meme Chain? These Are the Ones Propping Up Its TVL
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Solana Turns into a Meme Chain? These Are the Ones Propping Up Its TVL
New infrastructure is brewing an airdrop.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: Weilin
Priced at $599, the Web3 phone Saga—officially launched by the Solana blockchain network—has seen weak sales since its release in May this year. However, in December, the team airdropped 30 million BONK tokens to every phone buyer. These BONK tokens were immediately worth $700 upon receipt, meaning buyers not only recouped their costs but also made a profit.
This incentive caused the Saga phone to surge in value on eBay, with listings jumping by 500%, now priced as high as $3,000.
The "bait" used for the Saga phone—the BONK token—also became the catalyst that recently reignited activity on the Solana chain. This dog-themed meme coin surged from around $0.0000038 to a peak of $0.000034 within 30 days, nearly a tenfold increase, eliminating one zero in the process. Although it has since pulled back to $0.000015, it still achieved a monthly gain of 290%.
Low price and high returns are the most effective triggers for crypto traders. BONK’s surge fully ignited meme enthusiasm on the Solana chain. A wave of animal-themed meme coins followed, including WIF (inspired by Shiba Inu) and SILLY (the “silly dragon”), drawing significant capital inflows into the Solana ecosystem. Total value locked (TVL) on the chain rose to $1.475 billion within the month—an increase of 120%.
Increased meme trading activity on Solana also drove demand for the chain’s gas token, SOL. Combined with bullish sentiment in secondary markets, SOL’s price surged past $100 within the month, peaking at $113.27—an increase of 92.67%.
Some critics argue that “Solana is turning into just a meme chain.” But if you examine the chain’s transaction volume and project distribution closely, you’ll find that capital is still flowing into DeFi infrastructure—including decentralized exchanges (DEX), lending DApps, and liquidity management tools—and new foundational protocols are emerging. Additionally, sectors like metaverse and gaming have retained a portion of funds.
At this critical juncture of Solana’s revival, the “wealth effect” generated by memes has brought invaluable attention. Yet, what ultimately determines whether Solana thrives in a healthy manner remains the development of real on-chain applications—and promising new ones are beginning to appear.
Meme Coins Go Wild
If you're actively hunting for opportunities in the crypto “altcoin” market lately, you’ve likely heard of the “Silly Dragon,” whose token is called SILLY. Since its launch on December 5, it generated $30 million in trading volume within two days on Jupiter Swap, a decentralized exchange (DEX). It currently trades at $0.12—just after listing, the price had two zeros before the decimal point.
The Silly Dragon first appeared on clothing worn by Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, who wore it during the Solana Breakpoint 2023 annual conference at the end of October. Two months later, the character inspired an anonymous creator to launch the SILLY meme coin.
Although inspired by Anatoly’s shirt, SILLY isn’t the hottest meme coin on Solana. That title belongs to BONK, created a year ago. After lying dormant for nearly a year, on December 13–15, this veteran meme coin announced a major airdrop campaign targeting the Solana ecosystem—one key recipient group being buyers of the Solana Web3 phone Saga.
Price data for BONK as listed on CoinGecko
During the BONK airdrop period, U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase reacted fastest, listing BONK on December 15. Within 24 hours, the price surged 50%, peaking at $0.000014, generating over $2.35 billion in trading volume.
With that, the meme craze on Solana officially kicked off. WIF (Dogwifhat), PONKE, Popcat, Eggdog, Melon Dog—all emerged at once, as if hosting an “animal coin” summit. Among them, WIF was launched around Thanksgiving, featuring a Shiba Inu wearing a knitted hat. The token debuted on the Solana chain on December 18 with an initial market cap of $100 million. By December 24, its market cap doubled to over $220 million.
Meme coins flocking to the Solana chain
During this time, the most direct impact of the meme frenzy was a sharp rise in total value locked (TVL) on the Solana chain.
According to DefiLlama, Solana’s TVL stood at $670 million on December 1. By December 27, it had climbed to $1.475 billion—an increase of 120.14%.
Concurrently, the price of Solana’s gas token SOL also rose—from $59 on December 1 to a high of $121, more than doubling. It has since settled around $110.
New Applications and Airdrops Emerge
In terms of timing, the influx of capital into the Solana chain indeed aligns with the surge in meme coin activity. Savvy users aim to obtain hot assets at lower prices directly through on-chain or in-app interactions. Some wait for centralized exchanges to list these memecoins to capture additional upside, while others provide liquidity on DeFi platforms to earn application rewards.
These behaviors drive demand for the gas token SOL. But upon closer inspection, it's clear that infrastructure remains the backbone supporting sustained transactional activity on Solana—these foundational projects continue to absorb the bulk of capital and traffic.
Top 10 projects by 24-hour trading volume on Solana as of December 26
According to DappRadar, established projects across DeFi, gaming, metaverse, and governance sectors on Solana maintained very high activity levels in terms of 24-hour trading volume—projects such as Chainlink, Aave, Jito, Raydium, STEPN, and Helium. These are the true pillars ensuring Solana’s long-term health.
Among the Top 10 projects by 24-hour trading volume, only three are meme-related.
Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network, is essentially infrastructure for all blockchains, as smart contracts require external data feeds. On December 26 alone, it facilitated $617 million in trading volume on Solana. Lending platform Aave ranked second with $213 million in volume. Meanwhile, fitness app STEPN and metaverse game Star Atlas each retained millions in capital.
Notably, Helium—a prominent project in the emerging DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) sector—also made the Solana 24-hour trading volume leaderboard, contributing $29.83 million. Helium is currently the largest DePIN project on the chain.
Clearly, while meme coins are trending, capital activity on Solana is not solely concentrated in memes. As every seasoned Web3 investor knows, meme-driven rallies can be intense—but they don’t last.
Solana’s founding team is already thinking beyond the meme frenzy.
“I’m glad BONK is doing well. Let upcoming DeFi tokens succeed too,” wrote crypto KOL @R89Capital in a November 20 post that caught the attention of Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. He responded with a question: “Do you think meme coins will forever remain just memes (a totally acceptable outcome)? Or do you believe they could evolve into global movements where rewards incentivize people to perform certain ‘task-based’ work?”
Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder VC, believes: “If done right, crypto can tightly align valuable labor with the capital it generates. So while meme coins are fun, I’m focused on making the latter scenario a reality.”
What Chris envisions is already happening. New DeFi apps and NFT projects are launching and actively encouraging user engagement. On-chain interactions leave traces—and these records serve as “tickets” for future airdrop rewards.
Among these early-stage applications:
Newly emerging applications on the Solana chain
For example, derivatives trading platform Zeta Markets has introduced a “Z-Score” points system; lending protocol Kamino has a similar points mechanism; and AMM platform Meteora has confirmed an upcoming airdrop.
The meme craze has brought renewed attention to Solana, helping the chain recover from the shadow of the FTX collapse. Traffic and capital are returning. The next challenge is whether Solana can develop compelling applications capable of not only absorbing but also retaining the traffic drawn in by memes.
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