Data shows social media sentiment around Solana has been rising recently, but network utility has actually followed the opposite path. Solana Active Addresses Have Been On The Decline In a new post on X, analytics firm Santiment has talked about how a couple of key metrics related to Solana have changed recently. The indicators in question are the Positive/Negative Sentiment and Daily Active Addresses. Related Reading: Bitcoin Breaks $80,000, But On-Chain Activity Signals A Silent Warning First, the Positive/Negative Sentiment compares the bullish and bearish sentiments related to a given asset that are currently present on the major social media platforms. The indicator works by first separating positive and negative comments containing mentions of the asset using a machine-learning model and then taking the ratio of their counts. As the chart below shows, the Positive/Negative Sentiment has been going up for Solana recently, implying an improvement in investor mood around the cryptocurrency. Back in February, the indicator had plummeted for Solana as a consequence of the price crash. But even then, its value didn’t drop below the 1 level, meaning that sentiment never outright turned bearish, at least from the perspective of this metric. From the graph, it’s visible that the improvement in sentiment was gradual at first, but April saw an accelerated recovery. Today, the Positive/Negative Sentiment is sitting at about 3.2, which indicates that social media users are making more than three bullish posts for every bearish comment. “There is a growing narrative that the asset is primed for a breakout after trailing Bitcoin and other large caps, and regressing to the mean,” noted Santiment. While sentiment surrounding Solana has surged, the other indicator displayed in the chart, the Daily Active Addresses, has plummeted instead. This metric measures the total number of addresses taking part in some kind of transaction activity on the network every day. It would appear that user participation on the SOL blockchain shot up in January and reached a peak alongside the bottom in February. This trend wasn’t surprising, as volatile price action tends to attract trader attention. As the digital asset sector as a whole fell into a phase of consolidation following the February low, the Daily Active Addresses naturally declined as investors lost interest in the market. Recently, the metric has plunged to especially low levels, reflecting muted activity on the blockchain. More specifically, there have been just 2.89 million addresses that made transactions during the past week. For comparison, the indicator’s value was 5.01 million during the February high. Related Reading: Dogecoin Sees Big-Money Interest: Whales Load Up On 160M DOGE With the Daily Active Addresses sitting at a 4-month low right now, it remains to be seen whether the bullish outcome that the social media crowd is hoping for will follow for Solana. SOL Price At the time of writing, Solana is trading around $89, up more than 5% in the last 24 hours. Featured image from Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
A recent report by market intelligence firm Messari has highlighted an extraordinary performance by Solana (SOL) during the fourth quarter of 2024, characterizing it as potentially the best quarter for any blockchain in history. Solana Becomes Second-Largest DeFi Network The report reveals a staggering 213% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) growth in Chain GDP—essentially the total app revenue generated on the Solana network—rising from $268 million in Q3 to an impressive $840 million in Q4. November stood out as the most lucrative month, contributing $367 million to the ecosystem. Related Reading: XRP Price Enters Golden Pocket: Analyst Says It’s A Good Buy At These Levels Among the leading applications driving this revenue surge were Pump.fun, which generated $235 million, marking a 242% QoQ increase, and Photon, which saw even more explosive growth with a 278% increase, bringing in $140 million. The overall uptick in revenue can be attributed largely to renewed speculation in memecoins and a surge in AI-related cryptocurrencies launched during this period. Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL) grew by 64% QoQ, reaching $8.6 billion and positioning it as the second-largest DeFi network, surpassing Tron in November. The DeFi TVL, when expressed in SOL, saw a 28% QoQ increase, totaling 46 million SOL. The average daily spot decentralized exchange (DEX) volume also skyrocketed by 150% QoQ to $3.3 billion, driven by a resurgence in memecoin trading and the rise of AI-themed tokens. In terms of stablecoins, Solana’s market cap grew by 36% QoQ to reach $5.1 billion, making it the fifth-largest stablecoin market among competing networks. The dominance of USDC continued, with its market cap increasing by 53% to $3.9 billion, capturing a 75% market share. Increased Activity And Speculation The liquid staking rate, which measures the percentage of liquid-staked SOL, rose by 33% to 11.2%, indicating that a significant portion of the eligible SOL supply—66%—is now staked. This growth is crucial for a thriving ecosystem built on yield-bearing SOL. The NFT market also saw a modest increase, with average daily volume rising by 7% QoQ to $2.7 million. Tensor dominated this space, achieving $103 million in volume—a 14% QoQ increase—while Magic Eden experienced a decrease of 28% to $68 million. Network activity metrics reflected robust engagement, with average daily fee payers increasing by 171% QoQ to 5.1 million. The number of new fee payers surged even more dramatically, growing by 189% to 3.8 million. Average daily non-vote transactions rose by 32%, reaching 81.5 million. Interestingly, the average transaction fee saw a notable uptick, increasing by 122% QoQ to $0.05, driven by heightened network activity fueled by speculation regarding a more favorable regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies in the US. Related Reading: Dogecoin $10 Price Target Back In Play? Here’s What The Charts Say Despite these gains, staked SOL experienced a decrease of 5% in Q4, attributed in part to the FTX estate unlocking its tokens. However, SOL’s market cap itself grew by 27% QoQ to $91 billion, peaking at $120 billion in November. By the end of the quarter, SOL ranked sixth among all cryptocurrencies in market cap, trailing behind Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether’s USDT, XRP, and Binance Coin (BNB). Currently, SOL is trading at $199, down 22% over the last two weeks, amid growing macroeconomic challenges that are having a significant impact on risk assets. Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com