Solana price decline could extend on news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is probing crypto companies in its Ethereum investigation. The increased regulatory concerns could yield a deeper pullback in SOL price.
Solana has captured the attention of investors this month after its price soared past $200 for the first time since November 2021. The weekend saw a remarkable surge in network activity for Solana, even outpacing Ethereum in terms of total trading volume.
On March 16, Solana’s trading volume hit $3.52 billion, eclipsing Ethereum by $1.1 billion. This surge was largely driven by a heightened demand for Solana-based memecoins, with the newly launched Book of Meme (BOME) memecoin reaching a market capitalization of $1.45 billion in just 56 hours.
Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has grown dramatically, with its total value locked (TVL) increasing by over 80% in the past month. This growth spurt has elevated Solana’s DeFi TVL to its highest point in two years, positioning it among the top five DeFi networks by TVL.
Despite the recent decrease in trade volume, Solana’s market capitalization hit $91.56 billion. The cryptocurrency has also seen a 9.05% rise in open interest to $3.20 billion, though short traders have dominated liquidations in an effort to mitigate losses from the ongoing price rally.
Elsewhere, the Solana community has started speaking out against meme coin presales, which have become a more frequent and questionable practice. In these presales, crypto traders often send large sums of money to unfamiliar individuals, hoping to get in early on the next big thing like BONK, WIF, or BOME.
Following the multi-billion dollar surges of several Solana-based meme coins over the past three months—a trend that has propelled the blockchain back into the spotlight—many crypto influencers have started capitalizing on the frenzied atmosphere of FOMO. They are offering early, discounted allocations of certain meme coins before their launch to traders who send SOL to the promoters’ wallets.
Source: Cryptocurrency - investing.com
