Memecoin mania-induced 3x ‘hike’ on Solana just a ‘stress test’ – Co-founder

• Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko sees meme frenzy as a network test for future growth.
• However, the short-term impact of the frenzy is both positive and negative.

Solana [SOL] has been a darling during the current bull cycle, attracting praise and criticism equally, especially on its overheated meme scene. 

Solana’s meme sub-sector now accounts for  over $5 billion in overall market cap, with over $2.7 billion in daily trading volume per Coingecko data. Based on current prices, that’s about 6% of Solana’s market share of $83B. 

But the frenzy isn’t slowing down, with new meme projects like Slerf raising millions worth of SOL through pre-sales. 

Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko criticized the pre-sale and meme trend, stating, “To me, it’s just a bizarre thing, I think, of people being terminally online and kind of having nothing better to do.”

But in a recent interview with CoinDesk, the founder welcomed the crazy meme scene as a testing ground for Solana’s future growth.

“My guess is within five years, there’s going to be a trillion dollars with the stablecoins in crypto, and that’s an astronomical amount of real money.”

“Working out all the kinks now with memes is a blessing,” he added, alluding that the meme frenzy is a stress test for the network’s future growth. 

Meme frenzy’s mixed fortune for Solana

The meme frenzy has spiked Solana’s DEX (decentralized exchange) and major meme volumes to an all-time high.

Tom Wan, on-chain analyst and researcher at 21Co, noted that memes like Bonk [BONK], Dogwifhat [WIF], and Book of Memes [BOME] accounted for the most volume spike. 

On the negative side, the meme frenzy has attracted more bot spam, leading to failed transactions and a 3X increase in average transaction fees from “0.000005 SOL to 0.000016.”

Meanwhile, SOL maintained its fourth position in terms of market cap after recently flipping BNB. The token was up 13% on the daily front, following a dovish stance by the US Fed rate decision on March 20.