forbes.com
Solana’s SOL token has experienced some notable volatility lately, falling more than 7% in under 24 hours as the highly visible digital currency continues to encounter sharp price fluctuations.
The cryptocurrency, which is the native digital asset of the high-performance Solana platform, dropped to $53.73 earlier today, according to CoinMarketCap data.
At this point, SOL was down more than 7.5% since rising to as much as $58.13 the day before, additional CoinMarketCap figures show.
The digital currency has been having a rough couple of weeks, losing more than 20% of its value after reaching $67.63, its highest value in over a year, on November 16.
The SOL token pushed lower today as several other major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, suffered losses. The world’s most prominent digital currency dropped below $37,000 earlier today, dropping close to 2% in under 24 hours.
Several analysts weighed in on these developments, with Joe Lee, Founder and CEO of DefiDive, offering some interesting commentary.
“The $SOL price dropped 7% in the last 24 hours to hit a low of $53.73,” he said via a LinkedIn direct message. “However, to us, it is indicative of a minor correction.”
“In the past 30 days Solana has surged significantly with gains of over 70%, take-profit trades are priced attractively,” Lee added.
“24H trading volume has decreased by 35% from 2b last week to 1.3b this week.”
“Other large market cap alt-coins such as $TRON and $LINK have experienced a drop due to a wider overall correction of $BTC yesterday,” he noted.
“With limited news of the hotly anticipated ETF approvals, no fresh funds are seeking crypto allocations this week.”
“The 1% drop in Bitcoin’s market cap suggests more capital outflows from crypto than inflows during this period,” the market expert emphasized.
“What we are observing are portfolio rebalancing activities that are not subject to significant technical developments or announcements with relation to Solana activities.”
Joshua de Vos, Research Lead at CCData, also provided input, supplying his point of view via emailed comments.
“SOL is down intraday, mirroring the movements of Bitcoin, which has struggled to break through the $38,000 mark,” he said this afternoon.
“This trend in Bitcoin's performance has a significant influence on the broader cryptocurrency market, including altcoins like SOL. In the case of the past few days, we have seen relative weakness from altcoins, even those that led the market in this move up, such as SOL.”
Marouane Garcon, cofounder of The Real-World Asset Exchange, a perpetual futures exchange, took a different approach in his analysis, focusing on the impact of major traders.
“Solana’s price drop can be attributed largely to whale movements,” he said through emailed input earlier today.
“Over 2.1 million SOL was transferred in just three transactions, signaling major selling ahead,” Garcon stated, citing data from Whale Alerts. “This spooked retail investors into selling out of fear.”
“With on-chain data transparency becoming more prevalent, whale watching now significantly sways prices and sentiment,” Garcon noted.
Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether, EOS and SOL.