2024 has gotten off to a rocky start for Solana. Although the cryptocurrency market has shown positive momentum in the past couple of days, mainly due to optimism regarding Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Solana's price has fallen to $96 in the last 24 days.
Solana is a native cryptocurrency of the Solana Layer 1 blockchain network that supports smart contracts and enables Web3 developers and users to create decentralized applications (dApps).
Solana's price drop comes amid a widespread cryptocurrency sell-off. According to blockchain tracker Whale Alert , whales have pumped millions of dollars' worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum onto centralized exchanges in the past 24 hours. This erratic behavior of whales has caused prices to fluctuate, leading to a decline in the value of key digital assets.
In the last 24 hours, Solana (SOL) price has fallen more than 7% to its current price of $96.78. According to CoinGecko, the price dropped to $92.08 today. Solana lags behind the broader cryptocurrency market, which is down about 1.5% at the time of writing.
Solana (SOL) price chart, image source: CoinMarketCap
Investors lose millions as SOL prices fall
Solana investors doubled their losses with today's decline, with the altcoin falling more than 6% in the past seven days. The price of SOL is up 600% year to date, but is still 64% below its all-time high of $259.96 set in November 2021.
Solana's trading volume fell nearly 17% to $2.8 billion over the past 24 hours, indicating waning retail interest in Solana. Currently the fifth largest cryptocurrency, Solana's market cap has fallen to $40.5 billion over the past 24 hours.
Stability issues
Solana is often referred to as the “Ethereum killer,” and has gained popularity due to its ability to perform faster and cheaper transactions. Before moving to the Proof of Stake mechanism, Ethereum also gained popularity due to its low environmental impact.
However, it still faces significant challenges, as highlighted by the severe power outage in Solana last year. Another pain point is the inability of the network to process transactions without being completely disconnected from the network.