Similar history: Is SOL at another breakthrough moment? Behind the ecosystem's wealth-creation myth, here's what you need to know
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Similar history: Is SOL at another breakthrough moment? Behind the ecosystem's wealth-creation myth, here's what you need to know
The news that the SEC is no longer pursuing the classification of SOL as a security increases our expectations for the smooth launch of a Solana ETF and strengthens our bullish outlook on Solana's long-term growth potential.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights[Disclaimer] This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice. Investing involves risks; please proceed with caution. Readers should independently evaluate the content of this article based on their own circumstances and bear full responsibility for their investment decisions and consequences.
This week, Bitcoin surged past $70,000 again, driving a broad market recovery across the crypto sector. Amid this volatility, one standout performer has been Solana. In July, both Solana and its ecosystem demonstrated exceptional strength, climbing from $121 at the beginning of the month to $193—an increase of nearly 60%. Its total value locked (TVL) also leads other major blockchains by a significant margin, drawing widespread attention. Especially after two years of severe downturns, Solana’s recent rally has left many regretting missed opportunities. Who would have thought that just last year, SOL spent most of its time struggling around the $20 level?
Riding the Surge – The Rise of Solana as a New Crypto Market Leader
Many are surprised by how quickly Solana has rebounded to new highs. This week, BTC broke above $70,000 before pulling back, entering another phase of consolidation. Meanwhile, SOL and its ecosystem have remained remarkably stable, rising 30% over the past two weeks and maintaining strong momentum among Layer 1 blockchains. At times, its ecosystem activity even surpassed Ethereum. Can we now anticipate that SOL might soon break through its previous all-time high of $249?
Looking back at Solana's rise last year—from holding steady at $30, breaking $60 and then $120, and pushing toward $200 this year, nearly reclaiming its prior peak—we see resilience even during broader market corrections. Even when the market pulled back sharply, Solana held firm above the $140 support level. With Bitcoin’s latest rebound, Solana has once again taken off, surging past $190 and approaching the $200 mark. Its ecosystem is flourishing, with frequent emergence of viral Meme coins... This time, Solana may truly be on track to flip Ethereum entirely.
We can recall that in November 2021, SOL reached an all-time high of $259, reflecting immense market optimism about its high-performance blockchain and DeFi applications. However, as the broader crypto market entered a bear cycle, Solana followed suit with a sharp decline. The collapse of FTX in November 2022 further dragged SOL down to a low of $8—a point where few dared to buy—dealing a heavy blow to both the network and its ecosystem.
Data source: TradingView
In reality, despite building a high-performance blockchain during the 2021 bull run, actual adoption was underwhelming. At that time, most popular speculative projects like Meme coins were concentrated on Ethereum and BNB Chain. But starting in October 2023, with early signs of a Meme coin revival, and accelerating into early 2024 with an explosion of dog-themed meme tokens, Solana’s speed advantage finally came into full play. By shifting strategic focus toward supporting Meme projects, Solana found the perfect convergence of timing, technology, and community energy—ushering in a wild “Meme season” that injected fresh vitality and growth momentum into the chain. On July 19, decentralized exchange (DEX) activity on Solana hit a new peak, with daily trading volume reaching an astonishing $2.5 billion.
Data source: Dune dashboard @ilemi
From Obscurity to Dominance – Leading a New Wave Through Ecosystem Explosion
Over the past two years, Solana has experienced dramatic ups and downs—from soaring heights in 2021 to brutal declines in 2022, falling into a prolonged slump. However, starting in Q3 2023, Solana’s ecosystem ignited a summer boom. In just two years, its DeFi infrastructure has matured significantly. Explosive gains in projects like HNT, HONEY, and MOBILE sparked intense interest in the DePIN sector. Following that, a wave of high-profile new launches—including PYTH, JTO, and JUP—alongside generous airdrop campaigns, further enriched Solana’s ecosystem. RNDR rebranded to RENDER and migrated to Solana. Clearly, Solana has shifted from chasing sheer project count to prioritizing transaction volume and ecosystem热度. This strategic pivot has allowed it to stand out amid fierce competition among Layer 1 chains and rebuild its influence.
Recently, Solana’s DEX trading volume over the past 30 days has once again overtaken Ethereum, fueled by sustained user enthusiasm for Meme coin trading. Top-tier Meme coins now regularly exceed $50 million in daily trading volume. Starting with BONK and WIF, Solana ignited a full-blown Meme frenzy: In December 2023, Bonk kicked off a massive rally, triggering a chain reaction across the Solana Meme ecosystem. In February 2024, Doge-inspired “hat dog” memes caught fire. By March, BOME introduced a new wave of “send money” concept memes. Later, platforms like Pump.fun enabled seamless one-click token creation, leading to frequent appearances of “golden dog” gems.
These explosive Meme tokens not only delivered substantial wealth effects but also fully ignited Solana’s Meme ecosystem. Credit goes to the well-established internal infrastructure for Meme issuance and trading on Solana. From liquidity-sharing platforms like Orca and Jupiter, to DEXs such as Raydium and Meteora, and even fully automated trading bots, Solana now hosts a rich suite of tools tailored specifically for Meme projects.
More importantly, the founding team has publicly expressed support for certain Meme initiatives and continues innovating to enhance user experience. For example, this year’s launch of Blinks and Actions generated significant buzz, though poor timing—coinciding with a crypto market downturn—meant they failed to gain lasting traction. STARCAT, the first Meme token to adopt a referral commission model via Meteora following the Blinks release, briefly shined but ultimately fizzled out without sparking mass adoption. Still, these efforts embody Solana’s spirit of innovation within the Meme trend, laying fertile ground for future legendary 10,000x Meme stories.
Solana Key Metrics:
• Market Cap Trend: Despite overall market cooling in Q2, SOL endured extreme price swings. In early April, its market cap surged to a record $90.2 billion, then dropped 37% to $56.7 billion in May. Since then, it stabilized around $60 billion before rebounding above $85 billion last week—demonstrating strong recovery power and relative resilience compared to other Layer 1s.
Data source: CMC
• TVL: According to Defillama, Solana’s TVL stands at $5.4 billion, ranking third behind Ethereum and Tron. While still far below its November 2021 peak of $10 billion, the clear upward trend this year suggests strong future potential.
• SOL Staking Volume: As of July 30, a total of 388 million SOL are staked—an increase of 0.6% month-on-month. Only 6.3%, or about 20 million, are locked in liquid staking token (LST) protocols.
Data source: Dune dashboard @ilemi
The amount of SOL staked in liquidity protocols has steadily increased since October last year, indicating long-term investor confidence. Of this, 59% is locked in the Jito protocol.
• DEX Trading Volume: Solana’s DEX volume has repeatedly surpassed Ethereum, accumulating over $426.8 billion in total. In July, its 24-hour and 7-day volumes closely matched Ethereum’s, with Raydium being the most active exchange, capturing over 60% market share.
Solana DEX volume rivals Ethereum—source: Dune dashboard
Trading volume across Solana DEXs—source: Dune dashboard
• Network Activity Remains High: Weekly DEX users on Solana briefly exceeded 3 million in July, far ahead of other blockchains.
Data source: Dune dashboard @ilemi
• Active Wallets: Since March this year, active wallets on the Solana network have maintained high levels, unaffected by market pullbacks in the previous months. Daily active wallet counts exceeded 1 million in late July.
Data source: Solscan
• NFTs: NFT trading activity on Solana has become noticeably more vibrant this year.
The Solana team continues experimenting to foster ecosystem growth:
In early July, SEND posted over 100 use cases for Blinks on X, receiving official endorsement from Solana’s founder. They then launched 100,000 Send It series NFTs, allowing direct minting via a "Collect" button integrated into X using Blinks functionality. All 100,000 NFTs sold out instantly.
Additionally, top-tier NFT collection Mad Lads recently saw its floor price rebound to 60 SOL. Combined with strong intrinsic value and multiple anticipated airdrops, it presents a compelling long-term investment opportunity.
July’s Golden Dog Memecoins
XT Exchange specializes in discovering early-stage golden dog memecoins, driven by research to filter out smart contract risks and list trending Meme coins at lightning speed. Buy valuable tokens — go to XT.com.
Below are the post-listing gains of Solana-based Memecoins on XT in July:
Several tokens rose fivefold after listing, including LANDLORD and KAMA. CATDOG has steadily climbed since July 24, peaking with a 7.75x gain. The standout performer was FIGHT, up nearly 26x, while FEARNOT reached a 14x high. The research team also identified and listed promising tokens like NEIRO and FWOG at the earliest opportunity.
For Real-Time Alpha, Use These Tools
Earlier this month, BONK on Solana sparked a surge in dog-themed Meme coins. Similarly themed BILLY has already reached a $100 million market cap. Animal-themed Memes remain perennial winners in the retail speculation space, with many older projects showing signs of revival. Although overall Meme coin trading volumes have cooled to late-2023 levels, DEX volumes remain elevated, suggesting primary trading opportunities still lie in on-chain early markets.
A known issue with Meme coins is the time lag between identical tokens launching on Solana versus Ethereum. Solana’s low-barrier-to-entry enables first-mover advantage—typically, hot Meme tokens debut on Solana first, followed later by copies on Ethereum. Occasionally the pattern reverses, as seen with PEW. Generally, earlier entry means higher profit potential. Compared to the fast in-and-out capital flows on Solana, Ethereum-based Meme tokens tend to exhibit more stability.
Practical Tips – Follow These 7 Steps to Avoid Getting Rekt:
1. Seize real-time opportunities—breaking news often spawns naming-rights golden dogs. Timing is tight, but exploiting the time gap can be profitable. For instance, when Trump hinted at pardoning Assange, related Memes like FREE emerged; the death of Doge mascot Kabosu triggered a wave of tribute tokens; and NEIRO, named after Kabosu’s owner’s new puppy, exploded in late July, generating over $550 million in combined 24-hour trading volume across both chains. Identify the leading token on Solana, then enter the Ethereum version early when its market cap is still small. Always manage risk carefully and vet other red flags.
2. Monitor new tokens nearing funding caps on pump.fun, and review their "triple kit" (website, Twitter, community). A polished website deserves attention; check if the dev has launched other projects or has a history of rug pulls; verify verified status on Twitter; look for endorsements from prominent KOLs.
3. Use Telegram bots to monitor alerts—such as newly funded launches, KOL mentions, or activity from smart money wallets.
4. Check GMGN.AI for developer sell-offs, token distribution, smart wallet movements, and insider trading indicators.
5. Use Rugcheck to assess contract risks—lock status, burned liquidity pools, and whether admin rights have been renounced. Safety must always come first.
6. Track rankings on Dexscreener, Dextool, or Ave.ai—monitor price trends, market cap, liquidity pool size, and holder count changes.
7. Surf Twitter aggressively, follow active dog-coin communities, and track influential KOLs. But beware—if something is widely hyped, it’s likely a sign of coordinated dumping. Stay alert, gather comprehensive intelligence, and keep an eye on cold-launched golden dogs from credible teams. Those interested in Memecoins are welcome to join our dedicated dog-coin community to catch alpha early: https://t.me/memetothemars
Outlook for the Future
News that the SEC will no longer pursue classifying SOL as a security has boosted expectations for a Solana ETF approval, further strengthening our long-term bullish outlook. Currently, SOL’s market cap sits around $85 billion, representing approximately 3.52% of the entire crypto market. If Solana continues building momentum and captures half of Ethereum’s current 16.6% market share, its price could double—even if that seems overly optimistic. More realistically, if BTC reaches $150,000 in this bull cycle, Solana—as a top-five Layer 1—would remain a highly attractive asset. While DeFi may not be the main theme of this bull run, it remains critical for ecosystem health and infrastructure development across all major chains. Beyond price appreciation, we may also look forward to new technological breakthroughs from Solana in the near future.
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