• Solana’s price rally last weekend has extended its weekly gains by more than 25% lifting it up to the seventh spot.
• Solana’s key partnerships with Visa and Shopify have built major optimism for the asset.

Ethereum’s Layer-1 competitor Solana has registered a strong price rally over the last weekend toppling other altcoins like Dogecoin and Cardano, to becoming the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The development comes as the US government avoids shutdown by striking a last-minute settlement.

At press time, SOL is trading 14.95% up at $24.46 with a market cap of $10.1 billion. With this, Solana has extended its 2023 gains to more than 95% thereby becoming one of the top-performing altcoins.

The price of SOL experienced a steady uptrend, surpassing the $23.20 resistance level, demonstrating stronger momentum compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum. This surge resulted in a remarkable 15% gain, with a test of the $24.50 resistance level.

A peak was established around $24.47, and currently, the price is in a consolidation phase. SOL maintains a strong position, notably above the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level, calculated from the upward movement spanning from the $18.75 swing low to the $24.47 high.

Looking ahead, immediate resistance is around the $24.50 level, with the primary hurdle at $25.00. A decisive breach of the $25 resistance could potentially propel the price toward the $27.20 resistance level. Subsequently, the next significant resistance is near $28.80, and any further advances might steer the price toward the $30 level.

If SOL struggles to establish a foothold above the $24.50 and $25.00 levels, it may initiate a corrective movement to the downside. Initial support on the bearish side can be found near the $23.20 level, coupled with the trend line.

Solana Makes Key Partnerships

Over the last two months, Solana has announced two major partnerships – one with VISA and one with Shopify. Visa and Solana entered a partnership on September 5th, wherein Visa opted to utilize the Solana blockchain for handling USD Coin transactions. USD Coin, the world’s second-largest stablecoin, has a 1:1 pegging ratio to the U.S. dollar, providing customers the ability to make payments using cryptocurrency rather than traditional fiat currency at businesses that accept USD Coin.

Visa’s choice of Solana is due to several compelling factors. Primarily, Solana boasts exceptional transaction processing speeds, a crucial requirement for Visa. Solana’s theoretical transaction processing capacity stands at an impressive 65,000 transactions per second, significantly surpassing Visa’s rate of 24,000 transactions per second.

Additionally, Solana has established itself as a reliable platform for facilitating cryptocurrency transactions involving stablecoins. In February 2022, Solana introduced Solana Pay, a payment protocol designed for merchants to embrace USD Coin as a payment method. Furthermore, just last month, Solana collaborated with Shopify to integrate Solana Pay for e-commerce vendors.

This partnership will incorporate Solana Pay, a decentralized payment protocol, directly into the Shopify platform, offering countless businesses the opportunity to effortlessly embrace blockchain payments.