Solana (SOL) has been stuck in range-bound consolidation, given that it has posted the lowest gains in the last seven days among the top ten largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. SOL traded at $236 at press time after a 1.8% loss in 24 hours. Despite the underperformance, the Solana blockchain continues to lead in terms of adoption. Data from DeFiLlama shows that the blockchain posted the highest decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes in the last 30 days. The 30-day DEX volumes on Solana stood at $129 billion, nearly two times the DEX volumes of $70 billion recorded on Ethereum (ETH). The Solana blockchain is also witnessing similar growth in December as it is already leading with DEX volumes of $19 billion month-to-date. (Source: DeFiLlama) Rising volumes have also contributed to a surge in decentralized finance (DeFi) activity on Solana. The blockchain’s Total Value Locked has increased from $5.69 billion to $8.98 billion, ranking it as the third-largest blockchain by DeFi TVL. Solana dApp volumes surge Besides the rising DeFi activity, the Solana blockchain has also significantly increased decentralized application (dApp) volumes. Per DappRadar, the dApp volumes on the network have increased by 80% to $9.34 billion. The other dApp metrics on the network that also saw a significant rise include Unique Active Wallets (UAWs), which increased by 0.24%, while transactions soared by 10% to 604M. Much of this activity came amid a meme coin mania on the blockchain attributed to the Pump.fun meme coin launchpad. The total market capitalization for tokens launched on Pump.fun has increased to $6.8 billion per Coingecko after a significant increase. Despite the DeFi and dApp activity spike, SOL continues to trade within a rangebound market and has underperformed compared to other top altcoins. Solana ETFs a Matter of “When” – Bloomberg Analyst The world’s largest digital asset manager, Grayscale, recently filed for a spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF), and according to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, the filing has raised the odds of approval. “A lot of super bullish posting on a Solana ETF launch in my mentions. I do think it’s a matter of when – not if – under Trump’s future SEC admin… But by no means does that equate to “it’s happening imminently,” he stated. If the SEC approves a spot Solana ETF, it could bode well for Solana, as it could ignite a similar rally to that seen with Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
