Solana (SOL) has soared over 600% throughout late 2023. After breaking its key resistance level, the coin is ready to test the $130 mark in 2024. SOL was undervalued for more than a year, and it could move much higher in 2024.
Solana shows a remarkable performance despite the recent pullback during the final week of 2023. According to data from Coingecko, the coin has surged from around $105 to $117 over the past 24 hours as bullish momentum continues to build.
With its price soaring over 600% throughout 2023, Solana was among the year’s top crypto gainers, together with Bonk ($BONK), Injective ($INJ), Kaspa ($KAS), and Render ($RNDR), per CryptoCrunchApp. The memecoin project Bonk is also based on the Solana blockchain.
SOL Comes Out Of 2023 On Top
Solana has surged past Binance Coin to claim the fourth-largest cryptocurrency spot, with its market cap now topping $48 billion. This strong performance and the potential arrival of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) could potentially fuel market sentiment this year.
In a December report, VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, and senior investment analyst, Patrick Bush, predicted that Solana could outperform Ethereum in 2024 due to the dominance of total value locked (TVL) in its DeFi ecosystem. According to data from DefiLlama, TVL of the Solana blockchain saw remarkable growth in 2023, surpassing $1,4 billion.
However, it’s still far from its $10 billion peak in November 2021. Likewise, executives expected a spot ETF for Solana would follow those for Bitcoin and Ethereum this year.
In 2021, VanEck introduced Solana exchange-traded notes (ETNs), a debt security traded on the Deutsche Börse, Germany’s premier stock exchange. This move underscores VanEck’s positive view of Solana’s long-term prospects. If a spot Solana ETF comes this year, it could streamline mainstream investors’ access to SOL and the broader Solana token ecosystem.
What to Expect in 2024
After the FTX saga in 2022, Solana faced turmoil due to its association with FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. SOL took a nosedive following the incident, plunging below $10. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of the developer community, the blockchain turned the table.
Austin Federa, Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation, stated:
“The collapse of FTX hit the entire industry hard, but the position the network is in today is entirely due to the resiliency and capabilities of Solana’s global builder community. The Solana community went back to work, built through the bear, and a year later we’re seeing the culmination of that determination and effort.”
Solana continues to impress as one of the swiftest blockchains, matching top payment platforms with its recent average of 3,500 transactions per second (TPS). In theory, Solana’s capacity could reach between 50,000 and 65,000 TPS. This far surpasses Ethereum’s average TPS of 10-13, even though Ethereum is a significantly larger smart contract platform.
Additionally, Solana offers notably lower transaction fees than Ethereum. These network benefits make it particularly appealing for decentralized applications (dApps) across various sectors, including finance, gaming, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
2024 is expected to be a big year for Solana’s ecosystem. One of the major events is the launch of Firedancer to boost Solana’s scalability. While it is already a great blockchain, it will likely improve in 2024.
Firedancer is a next-generation, independent validator client for the Solana blockchain. Its launch is set to help Solana handle over 1 million transactions per second and strengthen Solana’s network. With more people turning to blockchain, SOL makes a lot of sense.
Firedancer is still under development but has already sparked excitement in the blockchain world. Its successful testnet launch in October 2023 marked a significant milestone, and the mainnet launch is targeted for Q1/2024. If it lives up to its promise, Firedancer could play a pivotal role in propelling Solana toward even greater heights in the future.
