Solana News Today: Solana's Price Surge Masks Deepening Onchain Despair

Solana (SOL) faces a short-term correction toward $202–$204 after forming a head-and-shoulders pattern on its technical chart, with the $240 resistance level persisting as a key hurdle. Following a drop to $155 on August 3, SOL rebounded over 36% to an intraday high of $210. Analysts and technical indicators suggest that the price could target $1,000 if the resistance between $210–$250 is successfully breached [1]. The current weekly chart exhibits a bullish megaphone pattern, with a potential breakout above the $330 upper trend line projected to lead to a price of $1,057 [1].

Open interest (OI) in Solana futures markets reached an all-time high of $13.68 billion on Saturday, reflecting heightened speculative activity. This surge aligns with the approval of the Alpenglow upgrade, which slashed transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds and boosted throughput to 107,540 TPS [1]. The upgrade received 98.27% support from voters, signaling strong community consensus and confidence in Solana’s technological evolution [3].

Despite these positive developments, Solana’s onchain activity paints a less optimistic picture. Over the past 30 days, the blockchain’s transaction count dropped by 99%, while the number of active addresses fell by 22%. In contrast, Ethereum transactions increased by 39% during the same period, according to Nansen data. Decentralized exchange (DEX) activity on Solana also declined by 65% to $10.673 billion in the past week [1]. These figures highlight a disconnection between price movements and actual network usage, potentially acting as a headwind for future price gains.

Solana’s DeFi ecosystem, while boasting $12 billion in total value locked (TVL), has not seen proportional growth in onchain activity. This divergence suggests that speculative demand, rather than organic usage, may be driving price performance. Analysts note that such imbalances can be unsustainable in the long term and may lead to volatility if market sentiment shifts [1].

The approval of the Alpenglow upgrade is expected to enhance Solana’s competitiveness against Ethereum by improving transaction speeds and reducing latency. However, the success of these improvements in attracting institutional adoption and expanding DeFi activity remains to be seen. The upgrade is also expected to unlock new use cases in Web2 integration, potentially broadening Solana’s appeal beyond the blockchain community [3].

In the broader market context, Solana’s price has shown resilience amid a generally bearish environment for cryptocurrencies. While the token faces near-term resistance at $240, the approval of a spot Solana ETF and the ongoing focus on institutional adoption could serve as catalysts for further gains. The market is closely watching for a breakout above key resistance levels, which could signal the start of a more extended bullish phase [1].

Source:

[1] Solana Open Interest Hits $13B All-time High (https://cointelegraph.com/news/solana-charts-1000-sol-price-target-open-interest-all-time-highs)

[2] Solana Set for Major Overhaul After 98% Votes to Approve (https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2025/09/02/solana-set-for-major-overhaul-after-98-votes-to-approve-historic-alpenglow-upgrade)

[3] Solana Price Prediction 2025 to 2030 - SOL Price Analysis (https://icobench.com/cryptocurrency/solana-price-prediction/)