Solana (SOL), a blockchain platform known for its high throughput and low transaction fees, is garnering significant attention in the crypto space. As the market experiences a surge led by Bitcoin (BTC), independent market analyst Hansolar believes that Solana is poised for a substantial bull run, with a potential price target of $600.
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The Ether Fractal and SOL’s Potential
Hansolar draws parallels between Solana and Ethereum (ETH) during previous crypto market cycles. Notably, in the 2020-2021 bullish cycle, ETH’s price surged from around $85 to an astonishing $4,935, closely following Bitcoin’s uptrend. This remarkable uptrend represented an approximately 1,400% increase for Ethereum.
The intriguing part is that this fractal could repeat in 2024. As Bitcoin aims for an extended bull run beyond its November 2021 all-time high of $69,000, Solana could benefit similarly. Historically, ETH took off when BTC broke into new all-time highs, and retail investors flocked to SOL as a high-beta catch-up play. Currently, SOL is around 50% from its all-time high, akin to ETH’s position in the previous cycle.
That said, Bitcoin’s run-up toward $150,000, a valuation predicted by Fundstrat’s Head of Research Tom Lee on ETF approval prospects, could have Solana target $600 as its long-term upside target. That is nearly 450% above the current SOL price.
Fundamentals Supporting SOL Predictions
Beyond technical analysis, Solana’s fundamentals are robust. Recent network adoption has led to a surge in total-value-locked (TVL) across its ecosystem, reaching 20.51 million SOL, the highest level since January 2023.
As more assets flow into DeFi platforms, the scarcity effect may decrease the circulating supply of SOL, potentially driving demand and price appreciation.
Additionally, Solana’s sustained quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) growth is evident. Average daily fee payers increased by 103% during Q4/2023, while average daily DEX (Decentralized Exchange) volume rose by 961%, accompanied by a 359% surge in average daily NFT (nonfungible token) volume.
In Q1/2024, the airdrop of Jupiter DEX’s native tokenJUP also spurred on-chain activity atop the Solana blockchain. Also, its NFT volumes peaked near $5 billion, underscoring a strong underlying demand for SOL tokens.
Solana also boasts several technical advantages over other blockchains, such as:
- Proof-of-History (PoH): A novel consensus mechanism that uses a verifiable delay function to create a historical record of events on the network, enabling faster and more efficient validation.
- Sealevel: A parallel smart contract runtime that allows multiple smart contracts to execute simultaneously on the same chain, increasing scalability and performance.
- Turbine: A block propagation protocol that breaks data into smaller packets and distributes them across the network, reducing bandwidth requirements and latency.
- Cloudbreak: A state sharding mechanism that organizes the network’s database into an optimized data structure, enabling faster reads and writes.
- Archivers: A data storage solution that leverages a network of nodes to store historical ledger data in a decentralized and secure manner.
These features enable Solana to achieve over 50,000 transactions per second (TPS), with sub-second finality and average fees of less than $0.01.
Solana Technical Analysis
In the near-term, Solana eyes $200 as its primary upside target due to the formation of a bullish continuation pattern on its daily chart. Dubbed bull pennant, the pattern develops when the price consolidates inside a symmetrical triangle structure after a strong move upward. The formation suggests that SOL may experience another significant upward move shortly.
The height of the flagpole, which is the distance from the start of the previous rally to the top of the triangle, can be used to project the potential breakout target. In this case, the flagpole is around $100, which implies that SOL could surge by another $100 upon breaking above the triangle’s resistance. This would put SOL at around $200, which is also near the 1.618 Fibonacci extension level of the previous correction.
If Solana manages to clear the $200 hurdle, it could aim for higher levels in the long term, such as $300, $400, and eventually $600, as suggested by Hansolar. These targets correspond to the 2.618, 3.618, and 5.618 Fibonacci extension levels, respectively. However, these projections are based on the assumption that Bitcoin will continue its bullish momentum and lead the crypto market higher. Any adverse events or negative sentiment could invalidate the bullish scenario and trigger a reversal for SOL.
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