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The story of Solana has shifted from a meteoric rise to a high-stakes battle for relevance. After reaching a historic all-time high in November 2024, the network has struggled to reclaim its former momentum. This loss of momentum reflects technical exhaustion and a market recalibration after an aggressive run-up. Thus, SOL has entered a new phase as investors assess whether fresh demand can emerge or if the network needs a new catalyst to reassert leadership.
Crypto trader Ardi has revealed on X that market interest has noticeably thinned ever since Solana set its $296 all-time high in November 2024. On-chain data has shown that buying pressure has been dominated almost by the retail-sized wallets, particularly those making purchases between $0 and $1,000.
Ardi argues that while many observers point to micro conditions to explain the stalled price action, the tape reveals that the distribution has begun before the peak. The selling volume had already been accelerating for months before October 10, signaling that major players were planning their exits long before the drawdown. The data also confirms a massive divergence between demographics.
Meanwhile, the mid-sized wallets involving $0 to $100,000, and the institutional-sized wallets involving $100,000 to $10 million in volume have been in a steady downtrend for roughly 13 months. Over the same period, retail wallets have shown a consistent uptrend, and are clearly convinced that SOL is still trading at a deep discount price.
This imbalance leads to the ultimate question: Is Solana’s value now intrinsically tied to memecoins? The correlation between SOL’s demand and the memecoin actively on the network has been near-perfect, which means that without the frenzy of the meme sector, most bids would largely be disinterested.
An investor and trader, Jas pointed out that 2025 has definitely been a reset for Solana, but it isn’t over for the altcoin. SOL active monthly traders have fallen from roughly 30 million to under 1 million, a staggering 97% drop in network activity. The speculative engine was the memecoin boom that fueled its rise and also exposed its biggest vulnerability.
Furthermore, SOL is down nearly 58% from its yearly high. SOL’s network revenue dropped fivefold year-over-year from $2.5 billion in 2024 to $500 million in 2025. The contrast with Ethereum is hard to ignore, and ETH generated $1.4 billion in revenue this year and outperformed SOL by 56% year-to-date. “SOL’s future may depend less on memes and more on what follows them,” Jas noted.
