Gate.io Blog SOL is Ranking Third in Market Cap, Analyze the Market Opportunities of SOL Chain in MEME Rush

SOL is Ranking Third in Market Cap, Analyze the Market Opportunities of SOL Chain in MEME Rush

21 March 18:15

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![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1692587449analysis.jpeg)
## [TL；DR]: 
With native MEME tokens igniting a frenzy of market speculation, SOL prices skyrocketed and exceeded $200, with search fever reaching a historic high and market value ranking among the top three cryptocurrencies.

<a href="/price/solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana</a> meme culture is prevalent, and last year, meme coins with dog themes such as BONK and WIF became popular. Recently, BOME and SLERF emerged, spreading rapidly and gaining strong momentum.

Solana has become the focus of market attention due to its excellent performance and active meme ecosystem. However, there is a coexistence of hype risk and long-term value, and investors need to carefully distinguish and pay attention to the development of its diversified protocols such as DeFi and AI.

## Introduction
The market value of Sol recently exceeded $90 billion, second only to BTC and ETH. Is it just the value growth brought about by MEME hype behind the soaring prices? We will explore it further in this article.

## The Hot Hype of MEME Has Driven Up the Price of Sol, Resulting in a New High in Search Popularity
A series of native MEME tokens being launched one after another has sparked hot market hype, with SOL prices exceeding $200 at one point.

Meanwhile, the search popularity of the term Solana on Google Trends has reached 100, setting a record high in five years, with a search popularity of 84 in early September 2021.

According to Gate.io data, with SOL exceeding $200 and Solana's market value exceeding $90 billion, it once surpassed <a href="/price/bnb-bnb" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">BNB</a>'s market value, second only to BTC and ETH, continuing to reach a new historical high. As of the writing date, with the decline of BTC, SOL has also decreased and is currently stabilizing around $190.
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17110159201.jpg)
Source: Gate.io
 
The continuous increase in Sol's market value corresponds to a surge in on-chain data. According to information monitored by Defillama, since 2024, over 2000 applications have been deployed on the Solana chain, with TVL increasing to $3.967B, a growth rate of 192% compared to the beginning of the year, and a daily active address count of 1.44M, second only to the Tron chain.
 ![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17110159632.jpg)
Source: Defillama
 
Since the strong rise in coin prices in the second half of last year, we have been paying attention to the development of the Sol ecosystem. Nowadays, as the FTX incident has dealt a heavy blow to the liquidity of its important projects, Sol has been able to nurture many popular projects such as NFTs, AI, Depins, MEME, etc., in a short period of time, and has engaged in fierce competition with the continuously booming <a href="/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> ecosystem. Its popularity has even surpassed other public chains such as <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a>, which itself demonstrates strong vitality and fully proves the resilience and potential of Solana, the "Ethereum killer," and has brought many surprises to the market.
 
## MEME is Prevalent and in Full Swing
Solana has a strong meme culture, with last year's popular <a href="/price/shiba-inu-shib" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Shiba Inu</a> themed BONK, Hat Dog WIF, White Pill LADYS, Pet Dog MYRO, and others, all attracting market attention in a short period of time. The popular BOME and SLERF are equally impressive, with their rapid spread and rising momentum surpassing others.

First, let's introduce BOME. The founder of BOME, Darkfarms1, has a significant influence in the field of crypto art and is widely acclaimed for its unique Pepe MEME artistic creations. On March 14, he officially launched the BOME project on the Solana blockchain, which operates similarly to a crowdfunding model, where participants donate through direct transfers.
 ![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17110159983.jpg)
Source: @Darkfarms1
 
In just 24 hours, the donation amount of the project exceeded 10,000 SOL, with a total value of over $1.85 million at that time.

Surprisingly, Darkfarms1 injected all the funds raised into the funding pool, which quickly sparked a strong response in the crypto art community for the BOME project and became popular, with its market value skyrocketing to nearly $1 billion.

The rapid rise of BOME has driven a series of trends on the Solana chain, and those who have pushed this trend to the extreme are SLERF.

On March 18, another KOL named @Slerfsol successfully raised 50,000 SOL. The original plan was to use 500 million of the total token SLERF to establish a liquidity pool (LP), and distribute another 500 million to supporters participating in the investment. However, during the operation, the project founder unexpectedly put these 50,000 SOL and 500 million project tokens SLERF into the liquidity pool. Even worse, due to operational errors, the 500 million SLERF tokens that were supposed to be distributed to investors were accidentally destroyed.
 ![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17110160284.jpg)
Source: @Slerfso
 
The result is undoubtedly a heavy blow for investors, as they have not received the tokens they deserve as scheduled, and thus have no pressure to sell.

"There is no project team, no pre-sale, no mouse storage, pool burned, permissions discarded, and 50,000 SOL in the bottom pool. Let's send it to the moon!"
After the news was released, the market value of the token rapidly skyrocketed in a short period of time, reaching a maximum of $680 million. This increase is truly astonishing, pushing the current meme trend to its highest heat.

As of the writing date, this wave of MEME has temporarily come to an end. According to the Gate.io market, against the backdrop of a significant decline in BTC recently, BOME and SLERF markets have also shown a downward trend of profit taking.
 
## Revealing Solana's Explosive Ecosystem Context
Solana was initially hailed as the "Nasdaq speed blockchain" and "Ethereum killer" highlighting its outstanding high throughput and low-latency performance, as well as its determination to catch up and move forward.

While Ethereum is focusing on building L2 modularity, Solana has been deeply involved in the single-chip field and has now achieved high market fit through its continuous rise in the meme ecosystem.

The main reason for the continuous popularity of Solana's meme ecosystem may be due to its unique community culture.

Firstly, compared to other mainstream public chains such as Ethereum, Solana's community culture is younger, more active, and creative, naturally possessing the soil for the birth of the meme ecosystem. On Solana, users express their love and interest in blockchain technology and the Solana project by creating and sharing various interesting MEME images, short videos, and jokes. The rise of this community culture not only attracts a large number of young users to participate, but also promotes the prosperity and development of the Solana ecosystem.

Secondly, Solana's MEME culture to some extent reflects the intensification of market speculation and speculative atmosphere. In the crypto market, MEME coins are often closely related to speculation. The MEME coins on Solana are no exception, as they attract users' attention through creative and humorous means, thereby driving up prices. This kind of hype and speculative atmosphere makes Solana's MEME culture more active and diverse, while the low transaction costs of machines lower the threshold for user participation, but also bring certain risks and instability.

In addition, Solana's MEME culture also reflects the innovation and inclusiveness of blockchain technology. On Solana, users can freely create and express themselves, whether discussing blockchain technology or evaluating Solana projects, all of which can be presented through various forms of MEME. This inclusiveness and innovation make Solana's MEME culture more diverse and inject new vitality and momentum into the development of blockchain technology.

It is worth noting that not every meme coin can continue to rise and successfully break out of the market like BOME and SLERF. In the recent wave of BOME imitation trading, another meme coin SORRY also successfully raised over 10,000 SOLs. The issuer also added all the raised SOLs to the liquidity pool, but this resulted in an asymmetry between market liquidity and fixed value, causing investors participating in private equity to suffer losses of up to 50%.
 ![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/17110160815.jpg)
Source: dextools.io
 
If we look closely, once the hype of memes subsides, the selling pressure will inevitably intensify. Although this short-term speculative behavior may seem tempting, the unstable liquidity may actually harm the healthy development of the ecosystem. We even have seen some people refer to Solana as the "Dog chain."

A mature blockchain network needs to establish a trustworthy reputation to attract the trust and support of investors, developers, and validators. Not only are there many MEME on Solana, but there are also many sections that are worth paying attention to and have long-term value, such as DeFi, AI, DePIN, RWA, and other protocols. In today's increasingly well-known blockchain market, learning, researching, and rationally choosing one's investment direction is the <a href="/price/secret-scrt" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Secret</a> to long-term success in the crypto market.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Carl Y.**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>

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ETH/USDT -2.93%

GT/USDT -2.32%

TL；DR

Introduction

The Hot Hype of MEME Has Driven Up the Price of Sol, Resulting in a New High in Search Popularity

MEME is Pr_ent and in Full Swing

Revealing Solana_s Explosive Eco_ Context

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