The price of Solana (SOL), the native cryptocurrency of the high-performance proof-of-stake Solana blockchain, hit a new all-time high US$245.69 this morning Asia time and briefly overtook Tether as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, according to CoinGecko data.
Fast facts
- Solana’s price surge comes ahead of the inaugural Breakpoint conference organized by the Solana Foundation, which will be held from Nov. 7 to Nov. 10 in Lisbon, Portugal.
- Launched in March 2020, Solana has been one of the hottest blockchains of the moment, with the price of Solana skyrocketing by 16,000% since the start of the year. Solana is currently trading at US$241 as of publishing time, with a market cap of US$72.26 billion, just a touch away from Tether, which has regained — for now — its spot as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of US$72.29 billion, according to CoinGecko data.
- Institutions, too, have invested into Solana. According to digital asset manager CoinShares, Solana investment products last week saw inflows of US$15 million, bringing the total Solana assets under management to close to US$200 million.
- Solana has been making huge strides in decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It is currently the third-largest blockchain in terms of total value locked (TVL) with US$14.86 billion locked into DeFi protocols on Solana, an increase of 1,000% from August, according to DeFi Llama. It also registered US$240 million in NFT trades, and offers a wide range of upcoming games, according to DappRadar’s October 2021 industry overview.