During the week, the Solana (SOL) price climbed by $68 to $103, marking a 40% increase.
According to DefiLlama data for Dec 23, Solana DEX volume hit $8.9 billion. The project’s weekly growth surpassed Ethereum, with 55% for SOL compared to 5.64% for Ethereum (ETH).
Meme coin’s 320% growth in a month and a new stablecoin
A probable factor contributing to SOL’s growth is the widespread adoption of low-cost cryptocurrencies on the SOL blockchain. An illustration of this trend is the meme-coin Bonk (BONK), launched in Jan. Like the two largest memes cryptocurrencies Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, its logo features a Shiba Inu dog.
BONK jumped up by 320% in a month, creating a lot of excitement. This frenzy led to a big increase in the sales of Saga smartphones from Solana developers on Dec. 14 and 15. Owners of these phones got a free giveaway of the meme-coin, but the company limited sales to just one phone per person.
This is not the first such airdrop of cryptocurrencies on the Solana blockchain. On Dec. 7, when 10% of the total 1 billion Jito tokens were given to SOL users, the price jumped from $1.8 to $4.36 in just 24 hours. Another DeFi project, Jupiter, shared plans to airdrop 40% of its JUP tokens to the community. It’s set to happen in January 2024.
On Dec.22, Paxos shared news about the introduction of the USDP stablecoin on the Solana blockchain. They highlighted that Paxos Trust Company LLC’s products and platform comply with regulations from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). There was an investigation by NYDFS in February, leading to Paxos being told to stop issuing BUSD. USDP will be available to everyone starting January 17, 2024.
