Ethereum is currently dominating the DeFi and smart contract niches when it comes to the Total Value Locked (TVL). However, while Ethereum is still the king, other chains like Solana, Avalanche, and Polkadot compete to prove themselves worthy contenders to the throne.
Solana, in particular, has seen some massive growth recently in terms of its total value locked (TVL). According to on-chain data from Messari, Solana outperformed other chains by achieving a total value-locked (TVL) gain of 14% over the course of the previous month.
Solana Sees Massive Growth in Total Value Locked
The aggregated TVL of the entire DeFi sector has been in a freefall since November 2022, and Solana hasn’t been exempted. However, Solana’s growth during the past month was driven in significant part by an increase in the TVL of protocols for staking and yielding based on Solana.
TVL refers to the total amount of assets deposited in a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol and is used as a metric to rank platforms. On-chain reports show that Solana grew its TVL by $45 million in July, corresponding to a 14.4% growth.
According to DeFi Llama, Solana currently sits at the 9th position in terms of TVL locked in all chains. Solana is now at a TVL of $320.07 million, representing a massive growth from its $205.11 million TVL at the beginning of the year.
While Ethereum still has the highest value with a TVL of $23.3 billion, it saw its TVL decline by 13% over the past month. Binance Smart Chain (BSC) also posted a monthly loss in TVL, dropping by 4.6% to $3.3 billion.
SOL price recovers to $24.75 as TVL grows | Source: SOLUSD on Tradingview.com
How Far Can SOL Go In 2023?
While the increase in TVL is due in part to an increase in the TVL of protocols, Solana also witnessed a surge in price at the beginning of July. Data from Coinmarketcap shows the price of Solana shot up from $18.9 on July 1 to $27.4 on July 16 to reach a market cap of $11.81 billion.
Solana, along with Bitcoin, led the surge in the crypto market around this time period. As a consequence, the surge in Solana’s price led to a direct proportion in the value of the total assets locked in DeFi protocols on the chain.
Despite having a TVL growth in the last month, user activity on the chain dropped toward the end of the month. Its market cap also dropped to $9.7 billion at the end of July, demonstrating the volatility of the crypto market.
At the time of writing, Solana is trading at $24.85 and is up by 14.93% in a monthly timeframe. Although experts predict Solana can surge above $30 before the end of the year.