SOL Price Sees +24% Weekly Gains as Solana Rides Wave of Positive Developments

Key takeaways

• Solana (SOL) has experienced a series of bullish developments, SOL token surges +38% in recent weeks
• After recently reclaiming a top 10 position in the crypto market cap listings, SOL now finds itself at number 7
• The CoinCodex price prediction algorithm expects SOL to form a new yearly high price level before the end of 2023

Recapping Solana’s recent successes

Solana (SOL) has enjoyed a positive few weeks, announcing several bullish developments that have resulted in the price of the native asset surging +38% in the past 21 days.

At the end of August, Solana revealed that Shopify stores could now use Solana Pay to process customer payments on the eCommerce platform. Shopify supports more than one million independent businesses, with each site now able to offer integrated crypto payments with seamless, low-cost settlements for the supplier.

1/ ?️Shopify ?Solana Pay

Today, Solana Pay integrates with @Shopify, empowering the millions of entrepreneurs and merchants on Shopify to accept fast, web3 native payments with no transaction fees through the end of 2023. https://t.co/q63KeBllXB

Learn more ? pic.twitter.com/QEb1LzqS51

— Solana (@solana) August 23, 2023

Shortly afterwards, Visa announced that it had chosen Solana to launch its cross-border settlement system. Visa is one of the biggest payment processors in the world, and the company is constantly seeking new ways to improve the efficiency of its operations.

In a recent announcement, Visa stated that it has chosen Solana for its USDC-based settlement system to “improve the speed of cross-border settlement and provide a modern option for clients.”

By the end of September, SOL had reclaimed its position in the top 10 of the crypto market cap listings. A +4.53% move on 28th September accompanied the launch of the project’s latest protocol upgrade, known as v1.16. This move took SOL to an $8.2 billion market cap on the day, which placed it at 9th overall in the crypto sphere.

SOL now the seventh-most-valuable crypto asset in the world after climbing +38% in the past 3 weeks

SOL experienced a disappointing 2022, crashing 96% in 12 months to fall back below $10 after formerly posting an all-time high above $250. The rapid decline of SOL was driven by a series of liquidations for major projects in the industry, which culminated in the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research — two key supporters of the Solana blockchain.

In the wake of the FTX collapse, SOL fell -79% to hit its yearly low at the $8.08 mark. However, Solana was given public support by key opinion leaders, including Vitalik Buterin, who praised Solana’s development community and stated that “the chain has a bright future.”

Some smart people tell me there is an earnest smart developer community in Solana, and now that the awful opportunistic money people have been washed out, the chain has a bright future.

Hard for me to tell from outside, but I hope the community gets its fair chance to thrive??

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) December 29, 2022

Despite being strongly backed by FTX and Alameda Research, Solana has always been a separate entity. After falling below $10 for the first time since February 2021, the market showed strong demand for SOL — it spent less than 5 days below $10 before quickly surging +239% to reclaim $20. 

Since then, SOL has held up strongly. The native asset of Solana’s enterprise-grade layer-1 has ranged between $20 and $27 for the majority of the year, rapidly reclaiming the $20 support level on all three occasions that it fell below. Now, following further bullish developments for the ecosystem in Q3 2023, SOL has once again reclaimed the $20 support level.

The CoinCodex price prediction algorithm expects SOL to continue its bullish move over the coming months, targeting a re-test of its annual high within the next 30 days followed by a sustained break-out towards the end of the year. By 31st December 2023, the algorithm expects SOL to have risen by +64.99% from the current level, with prices expected to hit $47 to form a new yearly peak.

3-month price prediction for SOL.

Bottom line: Could SOL be preparing for lift-off?

Solana’s high-performance blockchain technology, undervalued asset price, and a series of positive project developments, may seem like the perfect conditions for a SOL trend reversal. Both the fundamentals and the technicals seemed to be pointing strongly towards the buy button as far as many traders are concerned.

Whether SOL is able to sustain its recent impulsive wave may largely rely on the wider market, but Solana certainly looks likely to see some higher prices over the coming months nonetheless. The CoinCodex price prediction algorithm expects SOL to break out of its multi-month range, forming a new yearly high at a price level not seen since before FTX collapsed.