The ongoing cryptocurrency market rally that saw the price of Bitcoin (BTC) hit a new all-time high around $82,500 and Ethereum surge 27.8% in a week also saw Solana’s native token SOL moved up 34.3% over the same period to hit a $102.8 billion market capitalization.
According to CoinMarketCap data, Solana is currently trading at $217.2 per token after rising 5.7% in the last 24-hour period as it consolidates its position as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ahead of Binance’s BNB, which has an $89 billion market cap, and behind Tether’s USDT, which has a $123.48 billion market cap.
Solana Price Chart via TradingView
Excluding the stablecoin, Solana is currently the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. It’s nevertheless far from Ethereum’s $381 billion market capitalization and Bitcoin’s $1.63 trillion market cap.
Crypto rally helps Solana outperform
The cryptocurrency market rally comes after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the US elections. During his campaign, Trump had a pro-crypto stance where he called for every remaining BTC to be mined within the United States, and to make the country the “Bitcoin superpower of the world.”
Speaking at a cryptocurrency conference, Trump pledged to on “day one” fire current U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, who has been leading a crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry via regulation through enforcement.
While it’s clear the SEC doesn’t see Bitcoin as a security, the regulator has filed numerous lawsuits against cryptocurrency firms alleging various tokens were securities. These tokens could benefit from a cryptocurrency-friendly regulatory environment Trump has vowed to bring to the country.
Solana, for example, could benefit from the potential launch of a spot Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF). Various asset managers including VanEck, 21Shares, and Canary Capital have filed to launch such a fund.
As reported, even amid the cryptocurrency market rally Solana’s investors are showing confidence in the cryptocurrency’s potential future performance by staking their funds on the network. In the last 60 days, over $2.4 billion worth of SOL were staked.
Staking is a process in which the holders of the native token of a network relying on a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm lock up their tokens to help secure the network, receiving rewards in return.