Solana’s TVL increase and institutional engagement point to bullish October: analysts
2024-10-02

Solana's potential for a bullish October is driven by increased network activity, strategic partnerships and positive market sentiment, an analyst said.
Bitget Research Chief Analyst Ryan Lee argued that increased activity on the Solana network, coupled with key partnerships and positive market sentiment, is setting the stage for a bullish outlook. "Given the current market sentiment, increased activity and the ongoing development of the Solana ecosystem, along with significant partnerships, we expect Solana to be more bullish than bearish in October, potentially reaching a price range of $160 to $180," Lee said in an email sent to The Block.
Lee noted that Solana's $110 support level has demonstrated robustness during market downturns, including the early August liquidation event. He also highlighted that Solana has consistently ranked among the top performers during recovery phases for high-market-cap tokens.
The memecoin sector within the Solana ecosystem has exhibited strong growth, with Lee highlighting that "the meme sector in the Solana ecosystem has consistently been one of the most robust during rebounds."
Onchain data shows Solana experienced a significant increase in daily active addresses in September. It averaged over three million users daily compared to previous months when numbers remained below one million, according to Zeta Markets Founder Tristan Frizza.
"This increase in activity could be driven by a combination of interest in Solana as a whole, but also trends such as memecoins and the participation of celebrities and creators like Iggy Azalea drawing retail interest into the ecosystem, as well as cumulative efforts of the large and growing builder base to onboard more users and draw more liquidity," Frizza told The Block.
Frizza added that — after the Breakpoint event in Singapore in September, where Solana shared updates about Firedancer and Frankendancer — there has been a lot of interest and excitement in the Solana ecosystem overall.
Solana's TVL reaches multi-month high
Lee and Frizza's insights into Solana's network activity are reflected in the network's total value locked, which has increased to approximately $5.5 billion — marking a multi-month high. The top three protocols in terms of TVL on Solana are the liquid-staking Jito network with $1.97 billion, Kamino Finance with $1.56 billion, and the Jupiter decentralized exchange at $1.22 billion, according to DefiLlama data.
Total value locked on the Solana network has reached a multi-month high. Image: DefiLlama.
Comparing decentralized exchange activity on Solana and Ethereum, major Solana-based DEX Raydium has seen a rise in transactional activity, while Ethereum's Uniswap has experienced declines in certain metrics.
Over the past 24 hours, Raydium's unique active wallets increased by nearly 120%, whereas Uniswap’s UAW dropped by 20%. Over 30 days, the total value of assets on Raydium has increased by 6.46% in U.S. dollar terms, while Uniswap's asset value fell by 2.45%, according to DappRadar data.
Growing institutional interest in the Solana network
Lee emphasized that the growing institutional interest in Solana is crucial for the ecosystem's long-term prosperity. "The support from Franklin Templeton and Citibank is a significant positive development. Franklin Templeton’s plan to issue a mutual fund on the Solana network is particularly important for increasing Solana’s appeal to institutional investors," he added.
This is a sentiment shared by Ryze Labs Managing Partner Matthew Graham, who suggested that Solana may start to challenge Ethereum’s dominance in the institutional space. "Watch for Solana to start chipping away at Ethereum’s institutional mindshare. The technology is simply better," Graham said in an email sent to The Block. However, this contrasts the view expressed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, who argued at Token2049 that the network remains centralized.
The price of Solana decreased by over 5% in the past 24 hours to trade at $147.58 at 5:12 a.m. ET. Bitcoin dominance is at 53.8%, and ether dominance is at 13.3%, according to CoinGecko data.
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