Solana (SOL) Could “Soar Straight to $400” as Onchain Transfer Volume Hits Record Highs

The Solana blockchain recently saw its onchain transfer volume hit record highs, but market intelligence firm Glassnode claims that most of this activity is conducted by bots.

Solana (SOL) blockchain recently hit record highs in onchain transfer volume, but most of this activity is conducted by bots, according to market intelligence firm Glassnode.

In a Nov. 19 post on X, Glassnode noted that Solana’s SOL $238.09 transfer volume hit an all-time high of $318 billion on Nov. 16.

This is almost three times SOL’s total market capitalization, which is currently about $112.5 billion. The number of total active addresses on Solana had spiked to 22 million.

However, the onchain analytics firm noted that the mean and median transaction volumes dipped around the same time.

This raises questions about the veracity of Solana metrics because if the growth is organic, it should be accompanied by a similar uptick in the averages.

In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, Glassnode said:

“The recent surge in Solana activity could be attributed to several factors, including increased NFT trading, new airdrops or launches, and rising interest in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.”

The ramped-up activity was also likely responsible for recent increases in fees and network revenue.

Solana daily revenue hit a record high of almost $6 million on Nov. 20, with network participants paying $7.63 million in transaction fees, according to data from DefiLlama.

Solana revenue and fees. Source: DefiLlama

Additional data from Blockworks Research reveals that Solana achieved an all-time high of $26 million in real economic value (REV) on Nov. 19.

The layer-1 network also clocked the highest-ever decentralized exchange (DEX) volume of $6.93 billion, with Raydium representing 74% of Solana’s DEX trading volume with $5.13 billion, on Nov. 19, as per DefiLlama data.

Empowering Africa and connecting the world: X Spaces recap with VALR crypto exchange

Africa faces unique financial challenges, including limited access to traditional banking. Crypto and platforms like VALR offer a pathway to financial inclusion.

“When people look at Africa, they tend to lump it all together into one entity, which really diminishes the complexity and color that exists on the continent. But there are over 50 countries with many currencies, borders, cultures, tribes, and languages,“ noted Farzam Ehsani, CEO and co-founder of VALR, during Cointelegraph’s recent X Spaces.

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His colleague, VALR’s Head of Growth Blake Player, agreed: “Africa is definitely not like Europe or the US with one big homogeneous trading environment. There are different markets with very different rules, regulations and levels of sophistication.“

Ehsani, Player and VALR’s chief marketing officer Ben Caselin, gathered for a live discussion to discuss the nuances of the African crypto scene and strategies for crypto exchanges to thrive in these circumstances.

“No choice“ for Africa but crypto

Speakers noted the specificities of the African financial landscape, such as the phenomenon of mobile money, depreciating currencies, high interest rates and high remittance volumes. “Remittances are very expensive, highly intermediated and there’s a severe lack of liquidity for most African local currencies,“ added Player.

Still, a closer analysis of Raydium’s liquidity pools reveals that countless liquidity pools on this protocol have little to no liquidity and generate unreal trading volumes.

For example, the SOL-HAT pool held just $7 in liquidity but had almost $400,000 in 24-hour trading volume.

Liquidity pools on Raydium. Source: Raydium

This suggests that bots and other inorganic trading activities may drive a big chunk of Solana’s transaction volume.

This is not the first time Glassnode has claimed the presence of inorganic activity on Solana. On Nov. 4, the firm asserted that a “massive spike in onchain transfer volume” on Solana was “driven by a high-activity wallet using multiple accounts.”

Similarly, Cointelegraph previously reported on claims by pseudonymous researcher Flip Research that most of the activity on Solana was conducted by bots.

Critics have suggested that reported figures of Solana’s network activity in the last couple of months may be artificially inflated due to wash trading in memecoins, leading to skepticism over the network’s real growth trajectory.

SOL could “soar straight to $400”

Nevertheless, the recent spike in Solana’s network activity continues to spark investor interest as traders remain optimistic about Solana’s SOL $238.09 prospects.

Pseudonymous analyst Titan of Crypto says SOL could possibly hit the $400 mark as it appears ready to break out of a cup-and-handle pattern.

Source: Titan of Crypto

Veteran trader Peter Brandt