SOL crashes 6% in 24 hours: Does Jupiter’s airdrop have a part to play?

• Solana remained stable despite increased traffic via Jupiter.
• SOL has declined by close to 6% in the last 24 hours.

Solana [SOL] recently underwent an airdrop event. The network underwent a stress test due to the substantial number of users participating in the airdrop.

This occurrence led to notable alterations in certain critical network metrics.

Jupiter airdrops on Solana

On the 31st of January, Jupiter, the largest Decentralized Exchange (DEX) on Solana, conducted an airdrop event on the network. The airdrop generated significant attention from users.

Before the airdrop, Jupiter achieved notable milestones, surpassing major networks like Ethereum [ETH] in daily volumes.

According to data from CoinMarketCap, the newly launched JUP token recorded a trading volume of over $1.2 billion in the last 24 hours.

AMBCrypto’s analysis of the JUP token showed that it opened its trade at around $0.03. The token experienced a surge, reaching $0.8 before concluding trading at around $0.66.

However, at the time of this writing, it was trading at around $0.5, showing a loss of over 11%.

CoinMarketCap’s data also showed that the token had lost over 60% of its market capitalization in the last 24 hours. As of this writing, the market cap was around $790.8 million.

Source: Trading View

Solana stays online despite traffic

The recent Solana airdrop event brought attention to past concerns about the network’s performance. This prompted observers to question its ability to handle the increased traffic.

A post on X (formerly Twitter) revealed that the network experienced a 45% transaction loss during the airdrop. Despite this, the network successfully absorbed the entire traffic.

An examination of the network’s uptime showed that all platforms on the Solana network maintained 100% functionality. A review of the network’s status also revealed that there had been no downtime in the last 90 days. 

Solana sees record volume

AMBCrypto’s examination of DefiLlama’s data showed that Solana’s volume reached one of its highest points in history on the 31st of January. The chart showed a rise in volume to around $1.5 billion.

This was noteworthy, given the network’s historical data. The analysis also showed that the Total Value Locked (TVL) experienced a significant increase leading up to the airdrop event.

Source: DefiLlama

Starting around the 23rd of January, the TVL rose from around $1.3 billion to surpass $1.6 billion by 30 January. As of this writing, it was around $1.6 billion, slightly declining from the peak.

This data suggested heightened activity and value within the Solana network before the airdrop.

SOL fails to fly

Despite the airdrop event, AMBCrypto’s analysis of Solana’s daily timeframe chart showed that it had no positive impact on the price trend.

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On the 31st of January, the chart displayed an opening price of around $102. By the end of the day, it had experienced a decline of over 4%.

As of this writing, this downward trend continued, with SOL trading at around $95, reflecting a further fall of around 1.9%.

Source: TradingView