Solana outperforms Ethereum and the rest of the crypto thanks to the frenzy on memecoin

Solana continues to shine in the crypto market, surpassing the price performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum, thanks to the still hot memecoin narrative. This sector attracts capital within the network, and SOL is in a bull phase as it targets the 200-dollar mark.

Both on-chain data and derivatives suggest a possible increase in speculation ahead and a continuation of the bull phase.

In the meantime, another crypto is also pushing hard like Solana, also helped by a rich memecoin trend: which coin are we talking about?

Let’s see all the details below.

Solana better than Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the crypto market, thanks to memecoin

Solana leads the reins of the crypto market outperforming Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most altcoins in the last 30 days, aided by the hype around memecoins. According to CoinGecko data, the cryptocurrency has grown by 18.2% in a month, rising from 146 to the current 173 dollars.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, saw its price rise by only 6%, while Ethereum actually went negative, marking a -3.4%.

Specifically, however, it is in the last few days since the beginning of the week that Solana is stepping on the accelerator, leaving the rest of the crypto behind.

In fact, from Monday, October 21, Bitcoin and Ethereum lose percentage points while SOL moves in countertrend and aims for new local highs.

As user “Punk9277” observes, the last time Solana recorded a 20% breakout compared to the orange coin’s market share, prices skyrocketed. In December 2023 and March 2024, on both occasions with a similar scenario, the cryptocurrency rose by 60%.

As observed by Santiment, Solana has bounced back significantly after a small pullback yesterday. When traders start to become bear by betting downwards, SOL surprises everyone and starts pumping again, highlighting the incorrect behavior of the masses.

With these numbers, the currency is positioning itself as a potential best choice for the next bull market, expected in Q1 2025.

We also remember how over the past year SOL has recorded an increase in its value of 453%.

Memecoin narrative supports Solana’s on-chain metrics

As mentioned, the price increase on Solana comes from the frenzy in the memecoin field, which is draining capital from Ethereum and other chains in the crypto world.

The meme generation platform Pump.Fun has seen volumes in strong expansion from the second half of September onwards, reflecting the hype of the moment.

According to data from Dune Analytics, this protocol on Solana has seen over 15k deploy transactions processed per day in the last 30 days. 

In the last week, there has been quite an explosion of activities, with over 30k+ new memecoins per day and platform fees on the rise.

Some of the most representative memecoins of this golden moment on Solana are Goatseus Maximus (GOAT), Dogwifhat (WIF), Popcat (POPCAT), and Cat (MEW).

To highlight in particular how GOAT has risen from nothing to over 600 million dollars in market capitalization in just two weeks.

The AI bot funded by Marc Andreessen known as “Truth Terminal” has strongly promoted it on crypto social media, supporting the trades.

The token was created on October 10 by an anonymous developer using Pump.fun and obtained approved by Truth Terminal.

In all this, the memecoins have allowed Solana to record network revenues close to the March highs, with about 4.5 million dollars in earnings per day.

In particular, the blockchain has increased this metric by 10 times since the beginning of September, highlighting how this trend has picked up again in October.

In the meantime, the active users of the chain have risen to record levels of over 8 million.

It should be noted how fees like these also allow for lowering the inflation rate of SOL, with now over 15% of newly issued tokens being burned.

The network “Ethereum Killer” never ceases to amaze.

Another crypto that is growing thanks to memecoin

Another crypto that is experiencing an emotional period thanks to memecoins is SUI, token of a blockchain project conceived as a rival to Ethereum.

This coin is up by 32.4% in the last 30 days, with prices rising from 1.53 to the current 2.02 dollars. SUI capitalizes 5.5 billion dollars, with over 1 billion in trading volumes in the last 24 hours.

Even in this case, memes like Deepbook (DEEP), NAVX token (NAVX), Sudeng (HIPPO), Fud (FUD), and Blub (BLUB) have encouraged speculative enthusiasm.

While the broader crypto market suffers from mixed emotions, caught up in the performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum, these coins have a life of their own.

With their recent success, a lot of cryptographic liquidity has moved to the SUI blockchain, fueling a strong bull rally.

SUI, which two weeks ago reached a new all-time high, is now competing with Ethereum to see who will succeed in creating the best memecoin ecosystem.

We will see who will have the upper hand during the coming weeks.

Analysis of derivatives on Ethereum and Solana

To justify the positive momentum of the crypto Solana and the greater speculative traction compared to Ethereum, there are some data from the derivatives markets.

According to the data from the Coinglass platform, Solana has reached the highest open interest since January 2023 with about 3.09 billion dollars staked.

In just the last four days, open interest has increased by nearly 3 million SOL worth 506 million dollars.

The funding rate of the crypto has stabilized around 0.009%, outlining a scenario where there do not seem to be excesses in the demand for financial leverage.

A leverage peak could contribute to market volatility, allowing for a further acceleration of SOL’s price. However, in excess, this trend could lead to forced liquidations, both in bull and bear directions.

As for Ethereum, we see how the open interest has grown by almost 4 billion dollars since August despite the decline in the price of ETH.

The sum of bets in the futures markets has now reached the total value of 14 billion dollars, bringing speculative trading back into the spotlight.

At the same time, however, the figure is significantly lower compared to the top of 16.5 billion dollars of open interest recorded in May, before the crypto crash.

The funding rate is 0.008%, similar to that of Solana.

It is worth noting how the traders of options on Ethereum, despite the unfavorable outlook, are strongly bullish for the December 27 expirations.

By the end of the year, it is expected that ETH could reach 6,000 dollars, given the 110 million notional value of bets (call) placed at that price.

Big calls also for prices at 5,000, 4,000, and 3,000 dollars, with the notional value totaling 1.6 billion dollars.

The max pain price is set at 2,400 dollars.