Stay updated with the latest happenings in the Solana market, such as price movements, investor sentiment, the performance of Solana blockchain projects, and Solana NFT volume.
Here are five updates from this week that you should know.
Solana's Price Struggles Continue
Solana (SOL) has been on a downtrend since May 21, forming a descending channel. Currently trading at $146.91, SOL is at its lowest level in the last month.
Since the downturn began, SOL's value has fallen by 18%, indicating sustained selling pressure.
The descending channel, which supports resistance at the upper line and support at the lower line, shows a bearish signal. SOL's recent trend towards support at $139.54 is vital.
If the price nears this level, bulls might step in to defend it.
Since June 1, SOL's weighted sentiment has been negative, standing at -0.28 as of now.
This negative sentiment is further confirmed by SOL's declining futures open interest, currently at $2.12 billion, which has fallen by 18% in the past ten days.
The decline in future open interest suggests that market participants are losing confidence in SOL, which contributes to its downward trend.
BONK's Price Decline and Investor Sentiment
BONK, a meme coin on the Solana network, has experienced a considerable price decline, making investors pessimistic about its profit potential.
This is seen in the asset's weighted sentiment, which has turned negative.
The funding rate, reflecting the cost of holding long positions, fluctuates between positive and negative, indicating a bearish sentiment.
Blockchain analytics firm Santiment's analysts have noticed an increase in fear among investors.
They suggest that if panic selling continues, it may result in a brief bounce and an opportunity for buying.
“Spikes in mentions of selling or taking profit are common after a drop, and a temporary bounce and buy opportunity may form if we see continued FUD and panic from small traders,” Santiment explained.
BONK is currently trading at $0.00002519, having dropped over 40% in the last two weeks.
The price fell from $0.00004114, and the area between $0.00002748 and $0.00002153 has been tested as consolidation, acting as a critical support area.
If BONK's price manages to rebound and breach $0.00002748, it could resume its recovery towards $0.00003000. However, losing the support floor of $0.00002153 could result in a drop below $0.00002000, marking a two-month low.
USDC Minting on Solana Boosts Liquidity
In the last 24 hours, $250 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) was minted on Solana, boosting the liquidity pool within the ecosystem.
Liquidity plays a crucial role in the smooth operation of DeFi applications and decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on Solana.
By increasing the availability of USDC, these platforms can function more effectively, enabling seamless transactions and improving the overall user experience.
This upsurge in USDC minting could further fuel the growing trend of minting and purchasing memecoins on Solana, making it easier for users to convert USDC into memecoins."
Despite this positive development, Solana's DeFi ecosystem faces challenges.
The Total Value Locked (TVL) and DEX volumes have fallen, indicating decreased user activity and potentially reducing investor confidence.
Surge in Solana-Based NFT Platform Metaplex
The Metaplex (MPL) platform, which is based on Solana and deals with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), experienced a substantial 30% surge last week.
Metaplex enables the creation, sale, and management of NFTs and has attracted significant on-chain activity.
In May, the project recorded its highest-ever number of unique wallets with 834,000 signed transactions.
Furthermore, last month, 3.1 million new wallets acquired digital assets from Metaplex.
According to Santiment, a crypto analytics platform, Metaplex ranked third among NFT-related protocols for notable GitHub events in the last 30 days, with 23.07 events.
The native token of Metaplex, MPLX, is now trading at $0.342, up from $0.264 a week ago. Despite this increase, MPLX has started to decline, dropping by more than 5% in the last 24 hours.
MEV Sandwich Bot Profits on Solana
An MEV (Maximal Extractible Value) sandwich bot, known as "arsc," has managed to make approximately $30 million from Solana users over the past two months by executing MEV attacks.
These attacks involve inserting the attacker's transactions around a victim's transaction to manipulate the price and generate profits.
Ben Coverston, founder of cryptocurrency firm MRGN Research, reported that the bot has gone to great lengths to avoid attention while profiting from Solana network users.
“It is quite inactive and, judging by its behavior, is almost certainly a locked-down, cold wallet,” Coverston said.
One of the bot's most extensive wallet addresses holds over $19 million in total funds, including $17 million worth of Solana (SOL) and $1.1 million in Circle’s USD Coin (USDC).
At the time of writing, SOL was trading at $121.12, up by a mere 1.1% in the last 24 hours, following a bearish trend over the past few weeks.