Solana’s native token, SOL, has witnessed an impressive surge in its value, recording a robust 81% increase over the past 30 days and jumping over 30% in just the past week.
This rally coincides with the testnet launch of Firedancer, Solana’s highly anticipated scaling solution. On November 2nd, SOL’s price soared past the $41 mark, a level not reached since the previous August.
Branded by many as a potential “Ethereum killer,” SOL has dramatically outperformed Ethereum’s Ether (ETH), which saw a modest gain of just under 11% in the same timeframe.
Investment products related to SOL have also attracted millions in inflows, signaling a rising investor confidence in the asset. Despite the recent upswing, SOL still trades significantly lower than its all-time high of almost $260 recorded on November 6, 2021, reflecting a decrease of about 84%.
The optimistic wave was propelled further by the announcement made by Dan Albert, executive director of the Solana Foundation, at the Solana Breakpoint conference.
Albert unveiled the testnet launch of Firedancer, designed by Web3 development firm Jump Crypto. The initiative, which began in August last year, aims to enhance network performance through increased speed, reliability, and diversity among validators. Solana Labs’ founder and CEO, Anatoly Yakovenko, anticipates a mainnet launch in the first half of 2024.
https://twitter.com/solana/status/1719310929593057720
Despite past hurdles, including 14 partial or complete outages in 2022, Solana has shown improved network stability in 2023, suffering only one major downtime in February.
Nevertheless, there are concerns regarding potential selling pressures following the movement of $56 million worth of SOL, previously staked with FTX, to an unidentified wallet, alongside a $32 million movement suspected to be managed by Galaxy Digital, the designated liquidator for FTX and Alameda Research.
As the broader cryptocurrency market embraces a bullish stance, SOL’s ascendancy isn’t isolated.
Other altcoins have enjoyed substantial rallies, contributing to a notable increase in the Crypto Fear & Greed Index to a score of 72, indicating a shift to “greed” in market sentiment. Chainlink (LINK), Bitcoin (BTC), Avalanche (AVAX), and Near (NEAR) also reported noteworthy 30-day gains, underlying the recent positive mood sweeping across the crypto landscape.
