SOL Flips BNB on Back of Multi-Million Dollar Treasury Bet and DeFi Surge

Solana (SOL) regained its place as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization on Tuesday, surpassing BNB, as its price briefly rose above $200 for the first time since February.

As of press time, SOL is trading at around $200, up 3% on the day and surging over 28% in the past week, pushing its market cap to roughly $109.3 billion, ahead of BNB’s $106 billion, per data from The Defiant. BNB is down about 2% today to trade near $765, though the price is up about 12% over the week.

The flip comes just over five months after BNB last overtook SOL by market cap.

SOL’s rally appears to coincide with renewed activity in Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, as the total value locked (TVL) across Solana-based protocols has now surpassed $27 billion, the highest level since January, per data from DefiLlama.

The surge also followed news that public blockchain firm Mercurity Fintech signed a $200 million equity line of credit deal with Solana Ventures to launch a SOL treasury.

Wilfred Daye, chief strategy officer of Mercurity Fintech, said in a press release that the firm is evolving “beyond fintech infrastructure to engage directly in the value creation and utility of decentralized networks.”

According to the release, the firm’s goal is to build a long-term digital asset strategy by accumulating SOL, earning yield through staking and validator nodes, and investing in Solana-based DeFi protocols, as well as other Solana-based projects.

Mercurity Fintech’s MFH shares plunged on the news — falling by over 30% on July 21 and declining further afterward — likely because the firm simultaneously revealed a registered direct offering of 12.5 million ordinary shares and an equal number of warrants, each priced at $3.50, which seemingly raised concerns among investors about potential dilution of their existing holdings.