This week (Nov. 20-27), Solana dipped 1.65%—but the meat of the story lies in volatility, drama, key milestones, and a shocking revelation about the dark side of meme coins.
Solana Numbers the Last 7 Days
This week (Nov. 20-27), Solana dipped 1.65%—but the meat of the story lies in volatility, drama, key milestones, and a shocking revelation about the dark side of meme coins.
Gary Gensler, the designated crypto villain, revealed his plan to step down as SEC Chair on Jan. 20, 2025 (when Trump takes office), ending his controversial reign that stifled crypto innovation. Bitcoin, buoyed by buyers such as Michael Saylor, barely missed $100K. Solana joined the party too.
- Price: $231.17, down 1.65%
- Market cap: $109.76 billion
- DeFi TVL: $8.745 billion
- Daily active addresses: >7.3 million
- 24H trading volume: $7.18 billion
On Nov. 23, Solana hit a major milestone, surging to a record-breaking $263.83 before surrendering more than 10% of its gains while Bitcoin retraced to just under $92K as a usually bearish Thanksgiving week approached.
In another win, Solana’s monthly DEX volume surpassed $100 billion for the first time with an impressive $121.39 billion, leaving Ethereum far behind with just $63.673 billion.
Solana-based DEXs pulled in an impressive $37.98 billion trading volume over a week, even as activity dipped nearly 12%. Leading the charge were Raydium, Orca and Lifinity shouldering the lion’s share of the weight.
How Did Solana Stack Up Against Its Competitors?
Despite hitting a fresh all-time high, Solana ended the week down less than 2%, trailing the broader market. In contrast, Ethereum came alive with a 9% increase as Bitcoin holders rotated some profits into ETH.
Its market cap now sits at $137B fully diluted, just over a third of Ethereum’s, and around 8x that of Tron. Importantly, it is pulling in more daily fees than Ethereum.
Solana Ecosystem the Last Week
Solana's ecosystem had a mixed week as some tokens were in the money while others, especially meme coins, struggled to gain momentum.
- Top oracle protocol Chainlink (LINK) was the brightest spot, rising nearly 22%.
- Large-cap meme coins were on a losing streak, with Bonk (BONK) and dogwifhat (WIF) sliding 22.26% and 7.95%, Bonk taking a deserved break after a blistering run-up the last few weeks.
- Render (RENDER) showed softer investor sentiment with an 8% loss.
Top Gainers:
- Jito (JTO): +25.80%
- Chainlink (LINK): +21.7%
- Wormhole (W): +16.05%
- Arweave (AR): +10.23%
Top Losers:
- Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT): -31.49%
Solana DeFi
Solana DeFi is on fire as its monthly DEX trading volume has exceeded $100 billion for the first time. With a TVL of nearly $9 billion, Solana claims 7.5% of the market share while Tron claims the third spot with 6.49%.
Ethereum remains the king of DeFi with over $64 billion in total value locked (TVL). Can Solana hit a new TVL all-time high after notching major milestones with its price and DEX monthly trading volume?
Solana Meme Coins
This has probably been one of the ugliest weeks in the history of Solana-based meme coins. Pump.fun, a launchpad for Solana-based meme coins, was forced to suspend its streaming feature as meme coin creators resorted to dark and dangerous stunts such as animal cruelty and self-harm to pump their tokens.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao weighed in, pointing out that “meme coins are getting ‘a little’ weird.”
The red sea of meme coin carnage, exacerbated by Bitcoin’s failed run-up to $100K, tells the story of Solana’s top culture coins in the chart below.
Solana DePIN
It was a generally good week for Solana DePIN projects as there’s renewed attention on sectors with real utility.
- Grass (GRASS) bounced back from last week’s losses with a 25.3% weekly surge, while Helium Mobile (MOBILE) soared nearly 25%.
- Render (RENDER) and Hivemapper (HONEY) were on the losing end, falling 5% and 4.1% respectively.
- Helium (HNT) and io.net (IO) have similar performances, gaining just over 9%.
NFTs
Solana has the highest number of users among the tracked blockchains, both in the 24-hour and seven-day metrics.
While other chains like Ethereum and Base are holding their own, Solana is the undisputed leader, commanding 40% of all users on its network.
Top 5 Solana News Stories
Bitwise Joins Race for Solana ETF in the U.S.
Bitwise, a crypto investment firm, has filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to wrap Solana in an ETF to target institutional investors. The filing makes Bitwise the fourth horse to enter the Solana ETF race.
And for the cherry on top, the Chicago Board of Options Exchange’s BZX Exchange submitted four 19b-4 filings to list approved spot Solana ETFs. “Wen Solana ETF?”
Solana DEX Trading Volume Hits $100 Billion Milestone
Solana’s monthly DEX trading volume exceeded $100 billion for the first time and outpaced Ethereum by nearly 48%.
And November revenue is already… Well, just look for yourself.
Pump.fun Streaming Brings Unwanted Regulatory Attention
Pump.fun is facing heavy criticism after users reportedly made threats of self-harm and violence during live streams, linked to frustrations over token price and market cap performance. The platform was forced to suspend its live-streaming feature but plans to resume streaming.
SOL Hits New All-Time High
Solana marched unstoppably to a new peak of $263 on Nov. 23. According to our calculations, that’s a 47,664% price increase in just over 4.5 years!
Robinhood Adds Support for Solana Meme Coins
Solana meme coin Dogwifthat (WIF) is now live for trading on Robinhood in the U.S.
What You Can Do Now
Crypto bull markets are getting trickier every cycle. This tweet kind of sums up markets at the moment.
- The Solana ETF race is intensifying—stay on top of this vital milestone’s progress.
- Study which Solana DeFi protocols offer value based on their metrics.
- Solana meme coins need a reset after a tumultuous week.
- After hitting a new all-time high, plan for some volatility in both directions for Solana and its ecosystem.
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