Solana Drops 10% Amid Geopolitical Tensions and Oil Price Fears

Solana, a prominent cryptocurrency, experienced a significant drop below the $135 mark as geopolitical tensions and concerns over oil prices spooked traders. The U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites triggered a wave of risk aversion, leading to a sell-off in the crypto market. Traders became increasingly worried that even a temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz could spike oil prices, fuel inflation, and delay Federal Reserve rate cuts, deepening the risk-off sentiment that was already hammering the crypto market.

According to market analyst Tektonic, Solana was trading near $133.71 and testing the lower boundary of a descending channel, a structure often associated with bullish continuation patterns. After a sharp impulse move, the asset had been consolidating with lower highs, forming a classic bull flag setup. The analyst added that a confirmation above the flag resistance would play an instrumental role in validating the bullish continuation, with price action suggesting that the target was the $230 to $240 region.

However, the geopolitical unrest and concerns over oil prices led to a sell-off in the crypto market, with traders becoming increasingly risk-averse. This risk-off sentiment was further exacerbated by the potential for a temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which could spike oil prices and fuel inflation. The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) indicator, which shows the buying and selling pressure of an asset over a specific period, was already in bear territory, illustrating that Solana was not out of the woods yet.

Despite the recent drop, Solana has firmly established itself as the most-used layer-1 blockchain globally in 2025, consistently surpassing competitors like Ethereum in both daily active addresses and transaction volume. Recent data shows Solana routinely reaching 2.7 to 5.6 million daily active addresses and processing an astonishing 85 to 109 million transactions per day—approximately 10 times more active users and 80–100 times more transactions than Ethereum mainnet.

One key driver of Solana's success is its blazing speed and ultra-low fees. Solana processes blocks in just 400–600 milliseconds, with transaction costs as low as $0.00025—nearly free compared to Ethereum’s ~$0.05 per transaction. This combination makes it ideal for high-volume retail activity, including DeFi trading, NFT minting, and memecoin launches, where users can create and interact with smart contracts at minimal cost.

Moreover, Solana’s ecosystem growth has fueled this surge. DeFi protocols on Solana host over $12 billion in total value locked (TVL), and decentralized exchanges (DEXs) regularly handle billions in daily trade volume—recently hitting nearly $3 billion over just 24 hours. Equally notable is social media traction: Solana sees around 45 million social engagements weekly, nearly double Ethereum’s tally.

Network architecture also plays a major role. Unlike Ethereum’s monolithic proof-of-stake setup, Solana uses Proof-of-History + PBFT, enabling high throughput without sacrificing decentralization—the network supports over 1,400 mainnet validators and more than 5,000 nodes across 46 countries. The developer community—working in Rust and TypeScript—is further empowered by user-friendly frameworks like Anchor and no-code NFT tools, fostering rapid dApp deployment.

Solana’s dominance is especially evident in comparative metrics: one weekly snapshot recorded 26.5 million active addresses in a single seven-day window—outpacing chains like BNB, Tron, and Base by a landslide. And with monthly new addresses ranging from 100–150 million against Ethereum’s 3–5 million, it's clear that users are flocking to Solana. Nevertheless, Solana will need to dust itself off so that it builds notable momentum needed to reclaim the psychological prices of $150 and $200.