Will NFTs help SOL outpace its performance to reach $140

At press time, Solana [SOL] was changing hands at $88.99, having fallen by 2.44% in the last 24 hours. However, it appreciated by 1.44% in the last seven days. While the crypto market and the top 20 cryptocurrencies have been switching between red and green fast enough to give investors whiplash, it’s time to slow down and take a harder look at Solana.

Art for the SOL

With a market cap slightly below $1 billion, Solana’s NFT market scene has been capturing attention across the board. In the OurNetwork

“The number of NFT launches on Solana has skyrocketed, with more than 8m total NFTs being minted using Metaplex. Since September, there’s been a significant increase in the number of wallets with more than one NFT, which recently surpassed 500k.”

How are these numbers when compared to the incumbent giant OpenSea? In February 2022, Dune Analytics data showed that 2,033,077 NFTs were sold on OpenSea [Ethereum], while 1,764,674 NFTs were sold on OpenSea [Polygon]. However, the Solana-based Magic Eden NFT marketplace has been racking up more transactions than OpenSea.

Source: OurNetwork Newsletter

You feel what I’m saying?

NFTs might be seeing a good season, but with the Russia-Ukraine war dominating the headlines, investor sentiments are in flux. Data from Santiment revealed that weighted sentiment has been largely negative since the beginning of the year. However, sentiments have plunged below -1 since the start of the war, with only a brief rise above zero, before dropping to -1.202 again.

Source: Sanbase

Meanwhile, looking at development activity can provide more insights into the state of the Solana network. While activity last rose to a peak in late December, it has nearly halved since then. Well, this can be attributed to the ongoing war. A fall in development activity is not generally a positive sign for network growth.

Source: Sanbase

Coming to adoption, the OurNetwork newsletter noted that unique daily active signers had shot up by around 300% since September 2021. However, the Solana networks crashes were a matter of concern. The newsletter stated

“Unique signers peaked at 299k in late January, but tapered off a bit to 232k after the network’s most recent bout with degraded performance.”

Time for an APP-grade

It is interesting to note that Solana’s network adoption has been on an uptrend overall. In this context, the OurNetwork newsletter also pointed out the importance of two Solana wallets – Solflare and Phantom – rolling out their own iOS apps.

While not strictly crypto-based updates, this goes to show how accessibility outside the blockchain can also help boost a network’s popularity.