The Solana price was trading at $179 as of 3:00 am EST, down 6% over the last 24 hours. SOL is less than 25% away from its all-time high, and the technical setup reveals a possible uptick in price toward $300.

Meanwhile, the layer 1 blockchain has been declared the most popular blockchain in 2024, according to CoinGecko research.

Solana declared the most popular blockchain ecosystem

The Solana layer 1 blockchain has emerged as the most popular network so far in 2024. According to the latest research by cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko, the Solana network now accounts for more than 49% of global crypto investor interest in chain-specific narratives.

Interest in blockchain ecosystems in 2024. Source: CoinGecko

This is evidence that the Solana ecosystem has continued to capture the minds of investors, drawing from the price rallying close to its all-time highs.

The report noted that Ethereum ranked the second most popular blockchain ecosystem in 2024, capturing 12.7% of investor interest.

“The third most popular blockchain ecosystem is crypto exchange Binance’s BNB Smart Chain ecosystem, which holds a 5.4% share of investor interest year to date (YTD),” CoinGecko analysts added.

Following the BNB Chain closely in popularity were Cosmos and Avalanche ecosystems, which accounted for 4.5% and 3.8% of investor interest, respectively.

Increased trading volume and memecoin mania drive SOL close to all-time highs

On Sunday, March 17, Solana surged above $200 for the first time in two years, bringing it closer to its 2021 all-time high at $260. This uptick is driven by a surge in the network’s trading volume. Note that Solana has increased by more than 800% over the last six months. Its daily trading volume has jumped by more than 46,000% over the same period.

According to data from Binance, around $1.37 billion in trading volume has been recorded on the exchange over the last 24 hours, powered by a slew of smaller tokens, particularly memecoins.

CoinGecko analyst Lim Yu Qian said,

“Solana ecosystem’s dominant mindshare has been fueled by Solana’s continued rally back to 2021 highs, alongside the strong performance of key ecosystem project tokens such as Pyth and native memecoins such as dogwifhat.”

Much of Solana’s recent activity has taken place on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Jupiter and Raydium — with traders accumulating memecoins like Bonk and Slerf. Solana-based DEXs have been rapidly capturing market share from Ethereum DEXs like Uniswap for almost four months.

In the last week, Solana’s on-chain volumes have soared, and the fees the network has collected have risen to new all-time highs. On Monday, the total number of transaction fees paid on Solana hit an all-time high of $5.08 million.

Solana transaction fees. Source: Dune

Solana’s bull flag projects gains to $300

SOL price has been on an “up only” uptrend, rising 66% from a low of $126 on March 6, breaching the $200 mark to set a swing high at $210 on March 8. This was followed by a sharp correction toward $165 before rising to the current level at $179.

This price action has led to the formation of a bullish flag daily chart (see below). A daily candlestick close above the upper boundary of the flag at $184 would confirm a bullish breakout from this chart pattern that would see SOL make a run for its all-time highs 23.5% away at 260.

A breach of this level would clear the path for the token to climb toward the optimistic target of the governing chart pattern at $306. This would bring the total gains to 70%.

SOL/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

The positive relative index, which moved above the midline, supported this optimistic outlook. The price strength at 61 suggested that the buyers were still dominating the SOL market.

It remains to be seen when Solana will breach its all-time highs, but its uptrend is set to continue after the current correction has come to an end.

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