Programmable blockchain Solana’s SOL token rallied to a new high on Friday, replacing the meme-focused cryptocurrency dogecoin as the seventh-largest coin by market value.
SOL climbed 12% to $145, establishing a foothold above Tuesday’s record of $130, data from Messari show. The cryptocurrency’s market capitalization jumped to $42 billion, surpassing dogecoin’s $38 billion.
Since Solana launched the non-fungible tokens (NFT) project Degenerate Ape Academy on Aug. 15, the SOL token has tripled in price. The timing couldn’t have been better, given the ongoing NFT sugar rush.
“Solana’s popularity, already boosted by Sam Bankman-Fried’s support, has seen unprecedented price action on the back of strong mindshare growth, a flurry of decentralized application launches and, most recently, the frenzy around their Kaiju cards NFT launch,” Jehan Chu, co-founder, and managing partner at Keneti Capital, a blockchain investment and trading firm, told CoinDesk.
Kaiju Cards is a collectibles card game built on Solana’s blockchain and modeled along classic styles like Yugioh, Pokemon and MTG.
“Kaiju Cards NFTs are serialized, not generative. Think Pokemon or MTG, but with serial numbers on the blockchain,” the official blog says. “Each character is created and hand-drawn by one of our four industry-artists who have done original work for Adult Swim, Apple, Nickelodeon, Netflix, and other places you may recognize. There are 23 original characters contained in the Alpha Series.”
The presale of the Alpha Series aimed at giving early supporters and community members access to cards at a lower price took place on Aug. 20. The final distribution occurred Wednesday and was met with high demand. That may have boosted SOL’s price: The cards were priced at 5 SOL and 8 SOL.
“I believe there were way above 10,000 people online on their Discord,” one trader told CoinDesk in a Discord chat. “But only 3.5k NFT to mint – and only 1 card per wallet was allowed. So yes, demand was more than reasonable.”
Another trader said the latest leg higher in SOL could be related to Friday’s launch of Solsea, the first open NFT marketplace on Solana.
Solana’s ecosystem is booming, and the blockchain has garnered the support of major investors, thanks to its perceived scalability, relatively low transaction costs and fast processing speed.
Still, SOL now looks overbought with the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) hovering well above 70, indicating the pace of the rally may slow. “With volatility this high, SOL calls might be a decent sell,” QCP Capital said in its latest market analysis. Investors typically sell calls when the asset is expected to consolidate or move lower. Traders sell options when volatility is expected to drop. That’s because volatility has a positive impact on options’ prices.
