- Solana’s SOL token fell 5.5% between October 9 and 15, struggling to maintain the $150 support level.
- Memecoins based on the Solana blockchain have also experienced significant losses, contributing to the market downturn.
- Onchain activity, including decentralized app usage and transaction volume, has sharply declined, further pressuring Solana’s price.
Solana’s native cryptocurrency, SOL, recently encountered significant price pressure, slipping by 5.5% from October 9 to 15. Struggling to stay above the critical $150 mark, SOL saw a further 2.3% drop on October 17, settling at $152.27. The bearish trend, now in its third consecutive session, has been fueled by a mix of factors, including declining activity across Solana’s ecosystem.
At the same time, the prices of memecoins on Solana’s blockchain, such as Book of Meme and Dogwifhat, have also dipped sharply, with losses of 7.3% and 3.7%, respectively. The total market capitalization of Solana-based memecoins has fallen by 2.1%, currently sitting at $10.5 billion. This broader sell-off reflects weakening investor sentiment toward the Solana network.
Declining Network Activity Impacts Solana’s Performance
A notable slowdown in onchain activity has further added to SOL’s struggles. With fewer transactions and lower engagement in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, network momentum has tapered off. Defilama reported a drop in Solana’s transaction volume from $2 billion on October 14 to $1.7 billion by October 17, far below its August peak of $5.6 billion.
Additionally, decentralized application (DApp) activity on Solana saw a sharp decline, with DApp volume dropping 53% over the past week, according to DappRadar. The network’s unique active wallets, a key metric of user interaction, also plummeted by 48% over the same period.
Technical Analysis Points to Potential Further Declines
From a technical perspective, SOL’s price is caught in a descending triangle pattern that began earlier in the year, suggesting the possibility of further declines. Should the correction continue, SOL could drop toward the $125 level, and a failure to hold that support might push the price down to $75—a 50% decrease from its current value.
Solana’s ability to recover in the near term depends on whether it can break out of this bearish pattern and regain momentum through renewed network engagement. However, with both memecoins and DApp usage in decline, challenges remain for the layer-1 blockchain.
