- Solana (SOL) just reached a market cap of $90 billion.
- The rise of SOL’s total value allowed it to surpass BNB’s $85 billion market cap.
- SOL is now the 4th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Solana Becomes 4th Largest Crypto by Market Cap
Solana continues its rise to the top despite the slumping prices of Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins during the weekend. Today, the cryptocurrency once dubbed the “Ethereum Killer” climbed to fourth place in the crypto rankings by total valuation to surpass BNB and position itself just next to Tether (USDT).
As of this writing at 4:40 AM UTC, Solana is trading at $203 a pop with an increase of over 10% in the 24-hour chart. This elevates the market cap of the 443.77 million SOL in circulation to $90.52 billion, which is now $5 billion more than BNB’s total market value and $13 billion short of Tether’s numbers.
Solana’s trading volume, however, declined by 11% as $10.77 billion worth of its tokens were only traded between addresses as prices swung from a $179 low to a $204 high in the same timeframe. The present price of SOL edges it closer to its all-time high of $260.06 on November 7, 2021, by 22%.
Zooming out the charts displays the great strides made by Solana in the long run as it rallied over 44% in a week, 86% in a month, and 804% in a year.
Surge in Traffic
The soaring price of Solana is definitely welcome news to investors. It also brings in a positive sentiment toward the altcoin market. But then again, the renewed hype in the token has brought in busier blockchain activity, especially during the weekend.
On March 16, Solana experienced heavier network traffic, even surpassing Ethereum (ETH) due to the influx of transactions. This resulted in failed or missing transactions to some of its users based on their complaints on social media platforms like X.
According to the pseudonymous Dagnum P.I. on X, the blockchain peaked with around 3,200 transactions per second (TPS). These came with an average ping time of 20 to 40 seconds, 30% to 50% packet loss, and 50% to 80% failed transactions.
Cointelegraph attributed the traffic to degens piling up on new memecoins on the chain. One of the notable ones was Book of Meme (BOME), which went from near-zero market cap to $1.45 billion in nearly 5 days. Another was $Nap (NAP), which took off from $20 million to $330 million in less than a day.