Solana’s Meteoric Rise: Is a 100% Price Surge in January on the Horizon for SOL?

• January has been a profitable month for Solana (SOL) owners, with average gains of over 70% in two years, and investors are hopeful that the trend will continue this month.
• SOL is trading at $115, gaining over 10% in the past 24 hours, with the resistance now at $125; a daily close above this level could see Solana shoot to new highs this month.

Investors rely on a myriad of technical indicators and non-technical signals to predict the market movement of an asset, both in crypto and traditional finance. However, sometimes, it’s the most obvious and straightforward trends that give a hint of what to expect. For Solana, the price performance in January is being looked at as a prediction of the price of SOL this month.

At press time, SOL trades at $115, gaining 10.62% in the past day to shoot from an intra-day low of $103.9. The token has set an intra-day high of $116.54 as the market sentiment in the broader crypto market turned positive.

The market bounce for SOL is backed by the spike in the trading volume, which, at $3.32 billion, is almost twice as high as January 1st. Binance accounted for the bulk of the volume at $738 million. SOL seems to have shaken off the FTX debacle completely, and despite Sam Bankman-Fried facing 115 years behind bars, the token has been on a tear. In the past year, the crypto has surged 950%, setting the pace for large-cap cryptocurrencies.

For Solana, January is usually a profitable month. Last year, it gained 140% despite the FTX saga taking place two months prior and decimating the token. It started the month just below $10 but ended shy of $24.

In 2021, the token started the year at $1.5098 but ended January at $4.26, equating to 182% gain in 30 days.

This trend was, however, broken in 2022. SOL started the month at $170 but went on a freefall to end the month at $93.3, shedding 45%. But in the broader context, the entire crypto market had a tough year in 2021.

On average, SOL has gained 72.6% in January. Historically, the token has only gained more on average in August, with mean gains of 92%. Conversely, May is the token’s worst month, with average losses of 24%.

Can Solana (SOL) Maintain its Price Surge in 2024?

As Solana surged through 2023, many analysts were concerned it couldn’t replicate the same form in 2024. Some claimed that the token would dip as venture capitalists dumped their holdings to take profit. The token has an unusually high concentration of VCs who got the opportunity to invest in it before the masses jumped in.

However, two days in, Solana is proving its resilience and has shot up from $103 to $113 since the year started.

Solana’s continued dominance in 2024 will depend on whether its ecosystem grows. While its fundamentals were vital in its growth last year, many gains were down to pure hype. For instance, Bonk, a meme coin, has been critical to Solana’s growth. It even pushed interest in Solana’s Saga Web3 smartphones, and in two weeks, the company that was struggling to sell 2,000 smartphones had sold all its 50,000 initial stock.

But as with most meme coins, Bonk is struggling to remain relevant. In the past seven days, it has lost a fifth of its value, dipping from $1.1 billion to $875 million.

However, other metrics remain strong. Total value locked has been on a steady rise and, at press time, stands at $1.547 billion. Since November 1st, TVL has shot up 270% from $417 million.