Solana (SOL) Makes a Strong Start in 2023, Positioning Itself as a Major Competitor to Ethereum (ETH)

Solana (SOL) has experienced a strong start in 2023, positioning itself as a major competitor to Ethereum (ETH). Priced at $172.41

Solana (SOL) began 2023 with a strong performance, emerging as a key competitor to Ethereum (ETH). At press time, SOL was priced at $172.41, showcasing a 12.07% gain over the past week and a slight 0.51% decline in the last 24 hours.

Solana’s market capitalization amounted to $81 billion, supported by a circulating supply of 470 million SOL tokens.

According to Lookonchain, a new wallet withdrew 150,011 SOL (valued at $26.25 million) from Binance and staked it, as indicated by the on-chain data. This large staking activity hinted at increasing confidence among investors, further bolstering the bullish sentiment surrounding SOL.

Solana-Based Memecoin Surges 1,500%

In other news, a new Solana-based memecoin, Goatseus Maximus (GOAT), experienced a rapid rise, surging nearly 1,500% over two weeks. This impressive rally occurred even before GOAT was officially listed on cryptocurrency exchanges, highlighting strong community interest.

Trading at $0.6322, GOAT was seen consolidating its price at press time as it geared up for a potential rally. Crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa highlighted GOAT’s performance, suggesting that it could be leading the charge in the Solana memecoin category.

Memecoins have contributed significantly to transaction volume and active addresses within the Solana ecosystem, playing a role in the network’s recent growth metrics.

DeFi Activity and Network Metrics

Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) sector remained active, boasting $6.69 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), according to DeFiLlama data. Despite a 1.10% decrease in the last 24 hours, Solana maintained a strong presence within the DeFi domain.

Daily metrics showcased 4.11 million active addresses and 37.88 million transactions, reflecting substantial user engagement.

Revenue figures for the past day included $4.55 million in fees and $2.27 million in revenue, indicating a steady flow of network usage. Solana’s capability to sustain high transaction volumes and DeFi inflows could support future price gains, especially as more users engaged with its ecosystem.

Firedancer Upgrade to Drive Future Growth

Solana’s upcoming Firedancer upgrade, slated for 2025, aimed to enhance network capacity and reliability. It planned to use sharding technology to increase transaction throughput to 1 million transactions per second.

This upgrade could make the coin more appealing to institutional investors, potentially expanding user adoption beyond the memecoin realm. The Firedancer upgrade also sought to minimize network downtime, which had been a concern in the past.

If Solana achieves these improvements, analysts suggested that its market capitalization could approach half of Ethereum’s, further closing the gap between the two networks.