Solana (SOL) has become the most popular blockchain ecosystem in 2024, capturing nearly 50% of global crypto investor interest in chain-specific narratives, according to a recent report by crypto data aggregator CoinGecko.
The report follows the accelerated resurgence of SOL this year, currently at $177 and getting closer to its 2021 highs.
Another reason behind Solana’s massive traction is the number of meme coins that have dominated the market. As such, the network has given birth to popular tokens like Dogwifhat (WIF) and Bonk (BONK).
It doesn’t stop there, as new competitors are bringing in more hype. As CryptoPotato reported, Slerf (SLERF) is now among the most popular Solana-based meme coins, next to Book of Meme (BOME).
But CoinGecko also highlighted Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFI) ecosystem and how rapidly it has grown, with noteworthy projects like Parcl, Pyth Network, Jupiter, and Marinade performing extraordinarily well since the beginning of the year.
According to DefiLlama, Solana’s TVL (Total Value Locked) now stands at $4 billion, a 200% increase from January first.
TVL in Solana. Source: DeFiLlamaCan SOL Survive Bitcoin and Ethereum Corrections?
The last seven days have been interesting for the crypto market as Bitcoin (BTC) and many leading crypto assets suffered a substantial downturn and a subsequent partial recovery.
At the time of this writing, BTC is trading at around $66K for a 2% decline on the week. Ethereum (ETH) has also recovered slightly, currently trading at a weekly loss of around 5%, according to CoinGecko.
But Solana has seemingly come on top relatively unscathed, registering a weekly increase of 5.1%, trading at slightly below $180.