The Solana ecosystem has achieved a significant milestone by becoming the most popular blockchain ecosystem of the year. This is due to its ability to capture nearly half of the world’s crypto investor interest in the chain-specific theater.
Together with the outstanding performance of native meme coins like dogwifhat and important ecosystem project tokens like Pyth, Solana’s comeback to 2021 peaks show a revived faith in the network.
Solana’s Dominance: Coingecko Study Insights
According to a study by Coingecko, as a result of Solana’s nearly 50% share of global chain-specific interest, and its affiliated projects’ increasing popularity and performance, the ecosystem has a significant mindshare that reinforces its leadership in the cryptocurrency market.
Currently priced at $191, Solana (SOL) has increased by 13% in value over the past 24 hours. The fifth-ranked cryptocurrency has a market capitalization of nearly $85 billion, and its 24-hour trading volume amounted to $9 billion.
Bitcoin price action. Chart: TradingView
The popularity of Solana’s meme coins and ecosystem initiatives are successful in attracting attention to the network’s lively and dynamic ecosystem. As long as Solana is drawing attention and capital, its ecosystem will continue to dominate the cryptocurrency investor scene, paving the way for network expansion and innovation.
Ethereum, on the other hand, is the second most popular blockchain ecosystem this year, having garnered nearly 13% of investor interest. Ethereum is probably not a new, hot crypto narrative anymore as its ecosystem and investors are already familiar with it. The Ethereum ecosystem is also seeing its focus spread out among the layer 2 ecosystems that are developing on top of it.
SOL seven-day price ascent. Source: Coingecko
Factors Driving Solana’s TVL Increase
Meanwhile, according to DefiLlama’s data, the Solana blockchain has demonstrated a remarkable performance, with its decentralized finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL) rising by nearly 80% in the previous month alone.
Related Reading: DeFi Turmoil: Over $5 Million Wiped Out In Liquidations Amid Ethereum Price Drop
This incredible ascent represented a significant turning point for the network, with the Solana TVL reaching its highest point in the previous two years. According to the most recent report, Solana is among the top five with the fastest-rising TVL in DeFi, with nearly $4 billion.
Source: Defillama
Much of Solana’s TVL is based on the increase in trade volume, which is tracked by the Defi protocols and operates across its Layer 1 (L1) network.
Just this past month, there was a 125% increase in the daily trading volume of these protocols; the level of trading reached a peak of nearly $3.7 billion.
Additionally, the network achieved an all-time high of $1.6 million in total daily fees, with fee income of $3.61 million.