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Solana Projected To Reach $500 This Year Despite Market Meltdown, Expert Predicts

Solana (SOL), currently ranked as the fifth largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $56 billion, has experienced a significant decline amid the recent market meltdown affecting the digital asset space. 

Over the past 24 hours, SOL has witnessed an 8% drop, reflecting the broader market downturn. Despite this setback, experts believe that if the cryptocurrency maintains support above the $120 price level, it holds notable potential for a strong price recovery in the coming months.

Bullish Price Outlook And Key Support Levels To Watch 

After reaching a yearly high of $209 on March 18, SOL’s current trading price is $124. However, according to crypto market experts, SOL still has a promising outlook. 

Altcoin Sherpa, a renowned analyst, suggests that if the altcoin market continues to decline, the $120 price level may become an area of significant interest for SOL. 

Altcoin Sherpa maintains a bullish sentiment, strongly believing that SOL can potentially exceed $500 this year. Such a surge would represent a significant 300% price increase from current levels, building upon the impressive 426% year-to-date price growth. 

It is worth noting that this projection is nearly double SOL’s previous all-time high (ATH) of $259, reached during the last crypto market bull run in November 2021.

Solana

In addition to the analyst’s focus on the $120 price mark, other major resistance levels for SOL have been identified. These include $110, $102, and the critical long-term support level at $74, representing SOL’s uptrend structure over the past six months. 

Solana Dominates Blockchain Trading Volume

According to a recent CoinGecko report, Solana has secured its position as the second-largest blockchain by trading volume, commanding a substantial 21.3% market share in March 2024. 

The blockchain platform experienced a notable monthly growth of 244.8%, with trading volume surging to $40.05 billion, a significant increase from $11.61 billion in February. 

Solana’s performance in the first quarter of 2024 was equally significant. It accounted for 14.4% of all decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume, totaling $62.31 billion. 

This represents a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth of 242.7% compared to the previous quarter’s volume of $18.18 billion. Despite strong growth, Solana’s market share in the same quarter ranked fourth, trailing behind Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

Solana

According to CoinGecko, Solana’s trading volume has been greatly bolstered by several factors. Firstly, the doubling in the price of Solana’s native token, SOL, has attracted increased attention and trading activity on the platform. 

Additionally, the network has witnessed large airdrops from projects such as Jito (JTO) and Jupiter (JUP), further fueling trading volume. Moreover, the surge in memecoins on the Solana network has significantly contributed to its trading volume. 

Notably, the launch of Book of Memes (BOME) in March proved successful, as it achieved a market capitalization of $1 billion within two days. BOME also secured listings on crypto exchanges like Binance and Bybit, further amplifying trading activity on Solana.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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Pantera Capital Plans $250M Solana (SOL) Buy, Analyst Predicts Record Rally Toward $1000

Pantera Capital, a prominent crypto-focused asset manager with assets totaling $5.2 billion, has launched a fundraising campaign to purchase discounted Solana (SOL) tokens from the bankrupt estate of crypto exchange FTX. 

According to Bloomberg, the initiative, known as the Pantera Solana Fund, offers investors the opportunity to purchase up to $250 million worth of SOL tokens at a significant discount to the FTX estate.

Solana Token Acquisition Plan

Pantera Capital’s marketing materials, shared with prospective investors in February and reviewed by Bloomberg, outline the opportunity to purchase SOL tokens at a price 39% below the 30-day average or at a fixed price of $59.95. 

However, Bloomberg notes that investors participating in this opportunity must agree to a vesting period of up to four years. This approach reportedly allows FTX liquidators, led by John J. Ray III, to offload SOL tokens gradually, freeing up funds for creditors without exerting immediate downward pressure on the token’s price.

According to Pantera’s pitch document, the FTX estate currently holds approximately 41.1 million SOL tokens, valued at $5.4 billion as of the close of Wednesday’s trading session. This constitutes roughly 10% of the total supply of SOL tokens. 

According to its investor pitch, Pantera aimed to close the fund by the end of February. Although the amount raised by the deadline remains undisclosed, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Bloomberg that Pantera has secured some funds.

Investors interested in participating in the Pantera Solana Fund must commit a minimum of $25 million. Pantera Capital plans to charge a management fee of 0.75% and a performance cut of 10%.

Apart from its substantial SOL token holdings, FTX and its sister firm, Alameda Research, have invested significantly in startups within Solana’s broader ecosystem. 

According to Bloomberg, FTX’s venture arm, Solana Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners jointly announced a $100 million blockchain gaming fund in November 2021.

Ultimately, the estate’s intention to sell these tokens presents an opportunity to raise funds to repay creditors, considering the notable surge of SOL’s price in the past year. SOL has experienced a staggering 650% increase, trading nearly four times its price when FTX faced its crisis in November 2022.

Crypto Analyst Forecasts SOL To Shatter Previous ATH

SOL, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has continued its remarkable upward trajectory and is currently trading at $147.

The token’s price has increased significantly by 14% in the past 24 hours alone, and over the course of 30 days, it has soared by an impressive 56%. 

Despite this uptrend, SOL remains 43% below its previous all-time high (ATH) of $259, achieved in November 2021. However, crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa believes that SOL will break its previous ATH during this market cycle, with the only uncertainty being the size of the break.

Altcoin Sherpa suggests that reaching $500 is highly probable, and an even more astonishing milestone like $1000 is not entirely out of the question. The analyst further emphasizes its confidence in SOL’s potential, stating that it remains one of their more substantial investments. Altcoin Sherpa also highlights the next significant level to watch for SOL, which is $170.

Solana

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Solana In 2024: Roadmap And Key Price Targets For This Year

The Solana Foundation has unveiled a roadmap for 2024, focusing on innovation, developer engagement and network scalability. “2024 is the year of Solana,” the foundation proclaimed, focusing on the key milestones achieved and strategic goals for the year in the statement.

The “Solana Foundation’s State of Developer Ecosystem Report” highlights a surge in developer activity, with over “2,500 active developers committing to open source repositories” and an impressive increase in developer retention, rising “from 31% to over 50% throughout the previous year.”

The report further elucidated the evolution of Solana’s infrastructure, which in 2023 saw a leap in maturity with the deployment of “program frameworks for Rust, Python, and more,” as well as “SDKs available for 10 languages, laying a solid foundation for diverse dApp development.” Solana Labs’ innovative GameShift API has been a game-changer, a piece of “app-specific tooling” designed to revolutionize the gaming space on Solana’s blockchain.

On-chain data provided by Messari reinforces the network’s growth narrative, citing “a 65% quarter-over-quarter increase in daily average non-voting transactions, reaching 40.7 million, and a remarkable 102% quarter-over-quarter rise in average daily fee payers, amounting to 190,000.”

The roadmap also unveils forthcoming advancements poised to redefine blockchain capabilities. First, Solana aims to introduce “token extensions to empower more complex and multifaceted tokenomics.”

Second, a focus in 2024, will be on the launch of Firedancer, a new independent validator client for the Solana blockchain, built by Jump Crypto. It aims to support a higher number of concurrent transactions, increase network throughput, resilience, and efficiency, and address historical weaknesses in Solana’s peer-to-peer interface. Notably, Firedancer went live on the testnet in October 2023.

A third focus in the 2024 roadmap will be the development of Runtime v2 by Solana Labs, which aims to “significantly enhance the network’s performance and developer experience.”

This runtime is a concurrent transaction processor, handling transactions with specified data dependencies and explicit dynamic memory allocation. It introduces changes coordinated by epochs, influencing the cluster’s behavior. Moreover, Solana Core announced support for the Move programming language as a major modification in Runtime v2.

The Solana Foundation’s message via X echoes a commitment to innovation and community engagement: “The strength of the Solana ecosystem is amplified by our passionate community. With the community’s unwavering support, we are ready to accelerate into 2024 and solidify Solana’s position as the premier platform for blockchain development. It’s time to accelerate. Let’s keep building & make 2024 the year of Solana.”

Solana Price Prediction 2024: A Technical Analysis

A technical analysis of the Solana price action in the weekly chart (SOL/USD) offers predictions for 2024. Since mid-November, SOL’s price movement has been encapsulated within a parallel uptrend channel, indicative of a stable and consistent upward trajectory. The parallel lines representing support and resistance have guided the price action, providing clear levels for potential buy and sell points.

The Fibonacci retracement tool, applied from the swing high of around $262 to the swing low of $7.93, unveils key levels that may act as barriers or support in the future.

  • 0.236 at $69.59: A retracement level that previously acted as resistance and has turned into support.
  • 0.382 at $107.74: This level has been tested and is the next major price target of a weekly close.
  • 0.5 at $138.57: From 2021 till early 2022, this price level acted as strong support, but was turned into resistance in April 2022.
  • 0.618 at $169.41: Often considered the ‘golden ratio,’ this level is crucial for assessing trend continuation.
  • 0.786 at $213.30: Breaching this level could signal strong bullish momentum.
  • 1 at $269.22: As soon as SOL reaches its all-time high, the price discovery phase begins.

Solana price

Extended Fibonacci levels, such as 1.618 at $430.69 and 2.618 at $691.98, offer aspirational targets should the uptrend persist. The latter would be an ultra-bullish price target.

The Exponential Moving Averages (EMA) for the 20, 50, 100, and 200 periods all lie below the current price, confirming the strength of the uptrend. A ‘golden cross’ is evident in mid-December with the 50-EMA crossing above the 100-EMA, traditionally a bullish signal.

The trading volume shows a constructive pattern, with higher volume seen on upswings, a positive sign for continued interest in SOL. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is positioned around 60, suggesting that while the momentum is upward, there is still room for growth before reaching overbought conditions.

The technical analysis, grounded in the weekly chart’s display of a parallel uptrend channel, robust Fibonacci levels, supportive moving averages, and healthy volume and RSI readings, paints a very optimistic price outlook for Solana in 2024.