• Solana’s token, SOL, faced resistance at $104, causing a 9.8% price drop in just two days.

• Transaction volume on Solana hits $1 trillion, with a surge of 30% since December 2023, highlighting its growing blockchain popularity.

Solana’s native token, SOL, has had a difficult moment, with resistance at the $104 mark. SOL fell 9.8% in just two days, from January 30 to February 1, marking its fifth fruitless effort to break past this important resistance level.  Looking at a longer horizon, SOL has decreased value by 10.7% during the last 30 days. 

Record Network Activity

It is worth noting that the Solana network’s transaction volume topped $1 trillion in January, a multi-year high. This astounding growth represents a 30% increase over December 2023, when transaction volume stood at $738.8 billion. Notably, the online transaction activity hit levels not seen since September 2022, totaling $1.55 trillion.

Furthermore, in January, the number of registered addresses on the Solana blockchain surpassed 10 million, marking a multi-month high. This increase is important because it is the greatest reported since May 2022, when the number of addresses peaked at 11.72 million. These numbers demonstrate the increased interest and engagement in the Solana community.

Additionally, several on-chain data, such as daily active users with SOL wallet balances, have increased in recent days. Solana also established a new daily record for the number of wallets utilized for transactions, with approximately 750,000 last Friday.

Competitive Landscape and Challenges

Despite recent triumphs, SOL has hurdles ahead. The $104 resistance level has sparked interest because it shares market capitalization with its immediate opponent, Binance Coin (BNB). However, DeFiLlama reports that BNB Chain has a total value locked (TVL) of $3.54 billion, which is much larger than Solana’s $1.6 billion.

Regarding decentralized applications (DApps), Solana falls behind the BNB Chain. In 30 days, BNB Chain had 3.3 million active addresses engaging with DApps, compared to 2.65 million for Solana. Similarly, BNB Chain’s DApps generated a significant 30-day volume of $20.8 billion, contrasting with Solana’s $2.75 million.

Recent interest in the Solana network has centered on the Jupiter (JUP) airdrop, which has a market valuation of $800 million. The Jupiter decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator launched successfully, handling millions of transactions without incident. So far, over 438,000 addresses have claimed their JUP airdrop, with 9,391 receivers receiving more than 5,000 JUP, worth $3,000 at current pricing.

Arthur Hayes’ Bold Prediction

Former BitMEX CEO and cryptocurrency influencer Arthur Hayes recently made an interesting Solana’s (SOL) price forecast. He believes that SOL could experience an amazing rise, possibly because of fears in the US banking industry. Hayes, famed for his precise forecasts, predicts a 40% loss in New York Community Bancorp’s stock, similar to events surrounding the March 2023 banking crisis.

Given Hayes’ previous successful prediction of SOL’s price, investors are paying close attention to his latest findings. Hayes had voiced confidence when SOL was priced at $60, predicting a rally to $100, which eventually occurred.

Notably, various variables may be contributing to SOL’s difficulties. Market mood, overall cryptocurrency market conditions, and investor opinion toward the token could all play a part. Macroeconomic variables and news events can also impact the whole crypto market.