Solana Price Hits Two-Year Peak of $150 as DeFi Volume Tops Ethereum

By Andrew Hayward

Bitcoin and Ethereum aren’t the only major cryptocurrencies making moves: Solana rose above the $150 price point on Friday for the first time since January 2022.

The two-year peak for Solana comes as Bitcoin hit another all-time high price Friday morning above $70,000, while Ethereum reached $4,000 for the first time since 2021.

Like those coins, Solana dipped after hitting its own milestone, falling from above $152 to about $143. But the price has mostly rebounded since, landing at about $150 as of this writing.

Solana has surged in value in recent weeks, rebounding alongside the rest of the market while continuing the upswing that brought its price above $120 in December before momentum quieted for a couple of months.

Even amid the latest surge, Solana remains much further away from its own all-time high price point than Bitcoin or Ethereum. Solana peaked at just under $260 in November 2021—about 42% higher than the current price. Ethereum is approximately 20% away from its own peak price from the same month, while Bitcoin is down about 3% from this morning’s new record.

What’s driving the latest upswing? While it’s true that Bitcoin’s market swings are typically felt by other major coins, Solana is also climbing amid growing decentralized finance (DeFi) trading volume, not to mention a rise in Solana-based meme coins that are riding the latest wave of crypto hype.

Trading volume on Solana decentralized exchanges (DEXs) sits at $2.7 billion over the past 24 hours, per data from DeFiLlama, again popping past typically dominant chain Ethereum with $2.32 billion in DEX volume during the same span. Solana has notched a few of these moments in recent months as meme coin trading in particular surges on Solana thanks to its low fees.

Solana DeFi protocols now have more than $3.1 billion in total value locked (TVL), more than doubling the figure from one month ago. While still down sharply from the over $10 billion locked back in November 2021 when SOL was at an all-time high price, it’s the highest level marked since May 2022.

Ethereum TVL, meanwhile, sits at a vast $56.6 billion—also down significantly from the peak of nearly $109 billion in November 2021.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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