The Solana (SOL) Price in USD Recently Surged to $188.52

This article explores the factors currently influencing Solana's market trajectory, from on-chain data trends to innovative integrations

Solana's price in USD recently surged to $188.52, backed by surging on-chain activity and fresh integrations with retail and financial networks. As Solana continues to outperform several Layer-1 blockchains in user growth and speed, its role as a utility-driven asset is becoming more evident across industries.

This article explores the factors currently influencing Solana's market trajectory, from on-chain data trends to innovative integrations that demonstrate the blockchain's expanding relevance.

On-Chain Growth: Solana Surpasses 1.6M Daily Active Users

Solana's active daily users soared to more than 1.6 million in March 2025 as the users surpassed Ethereum for the second time in the year. There was also a 45% increase in transaction volume quarter to quarter due to NFT marketplaces and decentralized platforms on the Solana blockchain.

Solana's core feature of scalability as well as low cost is demonstrated by the average transaction fee being under $0.0025. These factors alone, alongside low fees, continue to draw the attention of developers for applications like Web3 gaming, AI marketplaces, and real-time financial instruments.

Solana Pay Empowers Retail Merchants Through Visa and Shopify Integration

Pay with Solana is without doubt the most important contributor to Solana's rally. Originally a p2p payment layer, Solana Pay now connects to the biggest retail stores globally.

In the first quarter of 2025, Shopify increased the capabilities of Solana Pay to more than 500,000 of its merchants, allowing for crypto-native checkouts with instant settlement. Circle reported in March 2025 that more than 38% of USDC retail transactions on Shopify processed via Solana were settled in under 500 milliseconds.

Visa has also expanded its cross-border settlement service on Solana, which started testing last year. Visa's on-chain settlements using USDC on Solana currently stand at over $240 million worth per month, mainly from cross-border payments to and from Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Solana Pay Powers Retail with Shopify and Visa

After some cooling-off time of the NFT collection sector, it seems like Solana collections are gaining the attention of investors. The Mad Lads NFT collection is now regarded as a cultural phenomenon within the Solana ecosystem, having experienced a floor price increase of 200% in Q1 2025.

Moreover, Solana's native NFT marketplace, Tensor, outranks OpenScape's enlargement on Solana, overtaking them with their daily transactions. Based on reports from Flipside Crypto, Solana NFTs in March alone accounted for 31% of the total trading volume for NFTs across all chains, which is a 12% increase from December's 19%.

The pattern, which can be referred to as NFT flipping, vividly illustrates Solana's adeptness at fast-paced, microtransaction-filled asset trading that is readily being adopted by streaming DApps and music platforms to capitalize upon.

Tokenization of Bonds and Stocks Elevates Solana's Institutional Interest

The increase in institutional interest in Solana is evident in the approach to tokenization. Swiss digital asset firm Taurus launched tokenized stocks and bonds, intending to launch on Solana; they mentioned the developer ecosystem and performance as the reason back in February 2025.

The move conducted by the UAE-regulated bond issuer, known as Monaxa Digital, also boosted validation for the blockchain's capabilities. Monaxa Digital chose to issue their newest government bond tokenization pilot on Solana, marking the blockchain's prowess and driving demand for native SOL tokens to use for gas and staking rewards.

According to Solana Compass, the current value of SOL tokens being staked remains defensively strong at 63% of the total supply. This helps limit the circulating supply, increasing the price when demand increases.

DePIN and AI Bridge Gap in Developer Activities and Additional Use Cases

The Solana ecosystem, among many other new technologies, is quite popular because it integrates AI and DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks). Its efficiency is the reason why projects like Helium and Render Network have migrated or integrated into Solana.

According to Render Network, over 40% of its rendering jobs run through Solana-linked nodes as of Q1 2025. The Solana Foundation has also introduced a $15 million grant program directed towards the development of AI-native applications, which includes on-chain machine learning model training and decentralized data labeling.

Solana's focus on these sophisticated tokens places the blockchain not only as a financial settlement layer but also as a key driving force for next-gen internet applications.

Whale Activity and Market Sentiments Are Still Cautiously Optimistic

Solana's trading volume has been supported consistently around the $175-180 range, and the open interest in the futures market was estimated at 1.2 billion in late March.