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Key points:<\/strong><\/p>\n Solana held the $140 support level for a week, a first in more than two months, highlighting traders’ growing confidence.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n SOL futures open interest hit $5.75 billion on April 30, showing strong institutional interest.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n With rising DEX volumes and a $9.5 billion TVL, SOL could rally to $200 before a potential spot ETF approval on Oct. 10.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Solana’s native token, SOL (SOL<\/a>), fell 4% between April 29 and April 30 after failing to sustain the $150 level. Despite this short-term decline, traders seem more confident as the $140 support remained intact for a whole week, an outcome that hadn’t happened in over two months. <\/p>\n As demand for leveraged SOL positions reached near record highs on April 30, traders are now reconsidering the chances of a SOL rally above $200.<\/p>\n SOL futures open interest climbed to 40.5 million SOL on April 30, marking a 5% increase from the previous month and nearing its all-time high. In dollar terms, this represents $5.75 billion in futures positions, ranking third in the cryptocurrency market and over 50% higher than the demand for XRP derivatives. This strong adoption of SOL derivatives points to growing institutional interest.<\/p>\n Traders often believe that increased demand for SOL futures signals rising optimism. However, since longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) are always matched, a rise in open interest does not necessarily indicate a bullish outlook. To better understand leverage demand in SOL futures, one can look at the funding rate for perpetual contracts.<\/p>\n Currently, the funding rate on SOL perpetual futures is negative, which shows more demand for bearish positions. The last period of moderate optimism ended on April 25 after a failed attempt to break above $156. The lack of bullish leveraged positions may be partly due to the 43% price gain SOL saw in the three weeks from April 8 to April 29.<\/p>\n A $200 target for SOL may seem ambitious, but the token was trading near $195 in mid-February, even after decentralized application volumes had dropped by 80% from their January peak. While Solana has faced criticism for its heavy reliance on memecoins, there is more to the network than just speculation on new tokens.<\/p>\n Solana ranks second in total value locked (TVL), with $9.5 billion in deposits, including liquid staking<\/a>, collateralized loans, automated yield platforms, and synthetic derivatives. Several Solana decentralized applications are among the top fee earners, with Meteora collecting $19.1 million in seven days, followed by Pump-fun with $18.6 million and Juto with $14.6 million.<\/p>\n Since April 14, Ethereum’s average base layer transaction fee has been $0.65 or less, yet Solana’s decentralized exchanges have seen nearly 90% higher trading volumes. Even when including the entire Ethereum layer-2<\/a> ecosystem, Solana led the past week with $21.6 billion in decentralized exchange activity.<\/p>\n Positive highlights from the Solana network include an 87% weekly increase in Raydium’s volumes and a 58% rise in Meteora<\/a> activity. So, even if demand for bullish leveraged positions stays flat, SOL’s price could eventually reflect the improved onchain metrics.<\/p>\n\n
Data shows increased demand for bearish leveraged SOL positions<\/h2>\n
Solana network dominates volumes on decentralized exchanges<\/h2>\n