Solana's Meteoric Rise Sees it Rival BNB, Ethereum in Market Cap

By: Eliza Bennet

Solana (SOL), a fast-growing blockchain platform, saw a significant surge recently, with its native SOL token trading near $100 for the first time in its 20-month history. SOL's impressive rally resulted in it briefly surpassing Binance Coin (BNB) as the fourth-largest digital asset by market capitalisation. Although the value has retraced to around $91 as of the latest update, the growth trajectory of the network indicates a robust performance.

According to data tracking resources, this upward movement liquidated approximately $20 million from crypto traders speculating on SOL's price. Factors such as several notable partnerships with global giants like Visa and Shopify, the rising popularity of Solana-based BONK memecoin, and a surge in DeFi activity on the smart-contract- enabled network have greatly contributed to SOL's price surge.

During periods of high trading activity, SOL's market capitalisation reached $42.24 billion, before dropping to its current value of $39.35 billion. This outpaced Binance-backed BNB which held a market capitalisation of $41.2 billion, temporarily positioning SOL as the fourth largest digital asset in the market.

Amid this rally, the demand and popularity of the blockchain-enabled Saga phones, produced by Solana, have skyrocketed, adding another feather in the network's cap. However, while this latest price surge has positioned Solana as a potential challenger to Ethereum's dominance in the DeFi, NFTs and smart contracts space, SOL still has some way to go to fully catch up with Ethereum's market cap of $278.3 billion.