Solana (SOL) has emerged as one of the month’s top gainers, rising over 20% as optimism spreads across the crypto market.

Analysts say Solana’s return above $200, though brief, reflects genuine adoption trends, as it’s driven by record on-chain activity, DeFi growth, and macro tailwinds, and not mere speculation.

“Setup Is Constructive”

In a statement to CryptoPotato, experts from B2BINPAY stated that Solana’s jump back above $200 this week is “more than just a speculative pop.”

On-chain metrics, for one, reflect strong growth, as daily active wallets are nearing 3 million. Blockchain throughput has also tripled since July, while DeFi total value locked reached its highest point since 2022. Expanding NFT activity, GameFi adoption, and Visa’s recent USDC settlement pilot on the Solana network add further credibility to its rally, according to the analysts.

From a technical perspective, the $200 mark has emerged as a solid support level, with relatively thin resistance between $219 and $222. A decisive breakout above that range, accompanied by strong volume, could open the door for a rapid advance toward $250-$260. This move is supported by falling Bitcoin dominance, which points to an ongoing altcoin rotation, while neutral funding rates indicate the market isn’t overly leveraged.

Macro conditions are also favorable, with a softer US dollar, September rate-cut expectations, and strong risk appetite in equities channeling liquidity into high-beta assets like Solana. B2BINPAY’s outlook remains bullish as long as SOL stays above $200 and BTC dominance continues to weaken, though a drop below $180 could pause the upward momentum.

“We think that until SOL holds $200 and BTC dominance is weakening, Solana remains one of the market’s top performers into late August. However, a break below $180 would put the rally on pause.”

Large whale holdings have also been on the rise, as those with more than 10,000 SOL jut reached a new all-time high.

Wallets holding 10,000+ Solana $SOL, around $2 million, just hit an all-time high of 5,224! pic.twitter.com/FDX8woJuLW

— Ali (@ali_charts) August 15, 2025

Solana’s Institutional Momentum

With its rally backed by real-world use cases, Solana is increasingly finding a place in institutional portfolios once dominated by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

As reported earlier, four publicly traded companies have collectively amassed over 3.5 million SOL tokens, which roughly represent 0.65% of the circulating supply.

Upexi holds the largest publicly disclosed treasury with 1.9 million SOL, which were accumulated in just four months since April 2025. Next up is DeFi Developments Corp, which has a stash of 1,182,685 SOL.

Toronto-based SOL Strategies owns 392,667 SOL, acquired steadily through a dollar-cost averaging approach between June 2024 and July 2025, supplemented by staking rewards. Torrent Capital rounds out the list with 40,039 SOL, purchased earlier in 2025 across multiple transactions.

Binance has asked a US court to dismiss FTX’s $1.76 billion lawsuit, arguing that the case lacks jurisdiction and relies on unsupported allegations.

The motion follows FTX’s attempt to claw back funds and blame Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, for contributing to its collapse.

However, Binance has rejected these claims, calling them speculative and legally flawed.

Binance counters FTX

In its filing, Binance argued that the US court lacks authority over the foreign entities named in the case.

The exchange pointed out that none of the defendants resided in the US and that the disputed agreements were governed by Hong Kong law.

Binance also emphasized that its entities were not party to the original share purchase agreements, further weakening FTX’s jurisdictional claims.

The firm stated:

“Plaintiffs do not sufficiently allege that any of the BHL Defendants had a reasonable expectation of being haled into American courts in connection with any of the alleged events.”

The exchange also aimed at FTX’s insolvency argument, asserting that the claim relies on unproven assumptions.

According to Binance, FTX was not demonstrably insolvent at the time of the disputed July 2021 transactions, and even if it were, the legal theory collapses under scrutiny.

Binance wrote:

“If FTX truly were insolvent as of July 2021, then there was no value left to be ‘destroyed’ in November 2022. But even more fundamentally, in advancing this theory, Plaintiffs are pretending that FTX did not collapse as the result of one of the most massive corporate frauds in history.”

Zhao’s tweets and the alleged bank run

The filing also addressed claims that Changpeng Zhao sparked a bank run through social media, describing those accusations as exaggerated. Binance maintained that Zhao’s posts were accurate and did not mislead the public.

Binance said:

“Plaintiffs come nowhere close to showing how the alleged Tweets of a foreign CEO and a foreign trading platform concerning another foreign trading platform can be said to have targeted the US such that the BHL Defendants should have anticipated defending litigation here.”

Binance also pointed out that its decision to liquidate its FTT holdings in 2022 was driven by market risk, not by an intent to harm FTX.

The exchange further argued:

“Binance itself was subject to significant uncertainty that the unraveling of FTX’s massive fraud was creating in the marketplace. Binance was plainly motivated to preserve its own business and make clear the measures it was taking to do so.”

Mentioned in this article

As highly speculative meme coins continue their inevitable plunge, crypto executives and analysts have been throwing their thoughts into the arena, and they are not very complimentary.

“Some meme coins have clearly gone too far lately, to the extent people are insider trading,” said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, before adding, “This is illegal, and people should understand that you will go to prison for this.”

“In every crypto cycle, there is a get-rich-quick crowd that comes and goes and learns this lesson the hard way,” he continued.

Meme Coin Madness

However, Armstrong was not fully critical of meme coins, arguing that “they’ve been with us since the beginning,” referring to Dogecoin.

“Meme coins are a canary in the coal mine that everything will be tokenized and brought onchain,” he said.

On memecoins…

Memecoins have generated a lot of buzz recently, and I’ve gotten some questions on how I think about them. I am personally not a memecoin trader (beyond a few test trades), but they’ve become hugely popular. Arguably, they’ve been with us since the beginning –…

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 19, 2025

“Meme coins are unquestionably over,” said Bitcoiner Nic Carter, who added that they “had no purpose beyond their launch mechanic,” which was supposed to be a “fair launch,” benefiting retail as much as venture capital giants.

“The meme coin trade was entirely based on a claim that was ultimately exposed as a lie – that the casino was at least fair.”

Carter concluded that “meme coins are cooked,” adding that there will still be launches and probably some winners, “but the meta is done.”

“Retail will still be farmed here as many are not extremely online and unaware of how extractive the sector is, but the endless coterie of scandals in memecoin land will turn off the smarter investors and eventually the mass market.”

Meanwhile, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said, “Turns out the financial nihilists that said meme coins have better fundamentals than tokens with real projects behind them were clearly wrong.”

Others mentioned flights to quality and the demise of meme coins, which has recently become a common theme.

All memecoins are going to zero.

People are realising they’re holding something which has no value.

It’s officially over.

Thanks for playing pic.twitter.com/Z10uU2CMQ1

— Crypto Beast (@cryptobeastreal) February 18, 2025

Biggest Meme Losers

The proof is in the performance as meme coins continue to melt down regardless of minor gains today.

The top five memes by market capitalization are all heavily down from their all-time highs. Dogecoin (DOGE) is down by 65%, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has lost 82%, PEPE has plunged by 66%, TRUMP has tanked by 77%, and both BONK and FLOKI are 73% down from their peak prices.

Perhaps the biggest loser from the meme coin fiasco has been the Solana network, which has been the go-to place to mint and trade them. SOL has fallen back to October price levels and has lost more than 40% in just over a month as meme coin mania fades.