Solana’s On-Chain Transactions Lead
Solana continues to maintain a significant lead over its competitors in terms of on-chain transactions. On the 26th of January, Solana’s active user base surpassed a million, marking the first such surge in over a month. This spike in network activity is believed to be driven by increased participation in its decentralized exchanges.
Proof-of-stake network Solana (SOL) has notably outpaced Bitcoin (BTC) in daily active users, a noteworthy achievement after being closely matched and even trailing the first-generation blockchain for much of the previous week.
Solana’s Network Demand and On-Chain Performance
According to AMBCrypto’s analysis of Artemis data, Solana’s active user base surpassed one million on January 26th, while on the same day, Bitcoin’s Daily Active Addresses dropped to 597,000. Solana, on the other hand, maintained a dominant position in on-chain transactions, with a daily count of 26.39 million on January 26th, surpassing other networks significantly. For comparison, the second-ranked Tron (TRX) recorded around 4.59 million transactions on the same day, only a fraction of Solana’s tally.
Are DEXes Driving Solana’s Network Demand?
The sharp spike in Solana’s network activity is believed to be a result of increasing demand for its decentralized exchanges (DEXes). CoinGecko data indicates that Solana-based Jupiter has surpassed market leader Uniswap (UNI) in 24-hour volume, facilitating trades worth $389 million. Over the last three months, Solana has consistently seen high DEX volumes, rebounding from the lows of the 2022-23 bear market. In December, the network witnessed its highest-ever monthly DEX volume at $28 billion, while January has seen transactions worth $18.8 billion as of the latest data.
SOL’s Positive Momentum
The positive developments on the network front have started to reflect in the price of Solana’s native token, SOL. The fifth-largest cryptocurrency experienced a 4.48% increase in the last 24 hours, bringing its weekly gains to 4.23%, according to CoinMarketCap. However, SOL’s performance in 2024 so far contrasts with its impressive fivefold price jump in the last quarter of 2023. The asset has dropped 17% year-to-date (YTD). As of now, market sentiment for SOL has shifted from greed to neutral, according to AMBCrypto’s examination of Hyblock Capital data.
Solana’s short to medium-term prospects rely on the demand from market buyers, and hence, more traders need to show willingness to purchase the asset at the current time.