3 Cryptos Topping Charts in the Solana Ecosystem
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| By Bruce Ng |
Even before the bull run was underway, one Layer-1 altcoin was already outperforming most others.
We wrote about Solana’s (SOL, “C+”) massive price explosion back in early November. At that time, it was trading near $40 and had already posted impressive gains of roughly 5x from its bear market lows.
And it’s kept going since. From its lows of $14 in mid-2023, SOL is now trading in the high $90s.
But it’s not just SOL benefitting. Many projects built on the Solana network have seen their prices rise from these liquidity inflows.
So, you could buy some SOL to get leverage to this top-performing blockchain.
But to go for even better growth opportunities, you may want to consider researching projects built on Solana. These cryptos will act as a leveraged trade on Solana — they’ll benefit from Solana’s rise and can potentially offer a greater return on investment as their prices are much lower.
To help you get started, here are the three top-performing coins on Solana.
Let me be clear: These are not recommendations. Nor am I saying I believe these altcoins will succeed in the long term.
Rather, these are simply the three cryptos performing the best on the Solana network at this time. As such, I think they are a good place to start your research.
Crypto No. 1: Bonk Inu
Current price: $0.00001371
Market Cap: $833 million
Type: Memecoin
Bonk (BONK, Not Yet Rated) is Solana’s biggest memecoin. It was launched in the depths of the bear market as an airdrop to the Solana community. The goal was to reinvigorate interest and inject liquidity into the Solana ecosystem following the FTX collapse.
And since then, BONK has increased 100x. It even posted its all-time high about one month ago.
It has since retraced about 50% in step with the broad market’s correction following the Bitcoin (BTC, “A-”) spot ETF approval.
Of course, that is the nature of memecoins — they are incredibly volatile. During rallies, they can take off like a rocket. But they also tend to fall farther in pullbacks.
I wrote about memecoins before — explaining what they are and suggesting ways to mitigate risk while dealing with them. I urge you to review those before beginning to consider a memecoin investment.
Still, we think BONK can see a multibillion-dollar market cap this year for potentially tenfold gains. That would allow it to rival the likes of Shiba Inu (SHIB, Not Yet Rated) and Dogecoin (DOGE, “C+”), the memecoin darlings of the last bull market.
Crypto No. 2: Jito
Current price: $2.40
Market Cap: $276 million
Type: Liquid Staking Derivative
I’ve covered liquid staking before, but in essence, it allows you to still use the value of your crypto even as it is staked through a digital IOU called a liquid staking token, or LST.
This is a departure from traditional staking, where you cannot use your crypto once its staked.
I’ve used Lido (LDO, Not Yet Rated) in the past as an example of a liquid staking derivative. But it’s built on the Ethereum (ETH, “B+”) network. That means you stake your ETH and, in return, Lido gives you an equal amount of its LST, stETH. You can then use that stETH on any platform that supports LSTs.
The Solana network equivalent is called Jito (JTO, Not Yet Rated).
So, instead of ETH, you’d stake SOL on Jito for an LST. This allows you to earn yield on your SOL without locking it up.
Jito takes a cut of the staking profits and by buying its native token JTO, you can get leveraged not just to the rise of SOL, but the rise of liquid staking as well.
JTO has already more than doubled in price since Jan. 1. We think it can climb to a $1 billion market cap easily in the near future.
Crypto No. 3. dogwifhat
Current price: $0.30
Market Cap: $300 million
Type: Memecoin
Launched in the heat of the Solana run up last fall, WIF has gone from strength to strength since.
Its market cap at launch was near $166 million … and it has already doubled.
Like BONK, it’s a memecoin native to the Solana ecosystem. And it is rumoured to be able to rival BONK’s market cap, which means it could go for a 3x gain from its current price near 30 cents.
Indeed, it may even be able to hit the $1 billion market cap range based on hype and sentiment of the Solana community alone.
Any additional catalysts — like being listed on a centralized exchange, could also drive prices significantly higher.
However, the same caution I urged with Bonk exists here. Memecoins are notoriously volatile and can be unwieldy investments.
Final Notes
Right now, SOL’s price is hovering between $90 and $100. That’s already an expensive initial investment. But it may be worth it as we believe SOL could hit prices near $1,000 at the peak top of this bull cycle.
That’s impressive!
But with such a high entry price, your ability to invest may be more limited.
That’s why a leveraged play — by investing in a promising project on the Solana network that’s trading for far less — may be a strategy to explore.
That way, you can benefit even more from Solana’s growth.
Of course, all the same words of wisdom when it comes to investing apply — do your research, don’t invest more than you can afford to lose and don’t let your excitement run away with you.
Or, if you’re looking for a little more insight into this bull market and how best to prepare, I urge you to watch my colleague Juan Villaverde’s Crypto Convergence briefing.
In it, he details the three massive events set to converge and send crypto higher. And he reveals the names of three altcoins he believes are likely to benefit the most.
But hurry. It’ll be going offline soon, so I suggest you watch it now.
Best,
Dr. Bruce Ng
