Solana flipped Ethereum in its 24-hour volume in the decentralized exchange industry as most of its meme coins jumped.

According to DeFi Llama, Solana (SOL) DEX networks handled over $845 million in the last 24 hours, bringing the weekly volume to $5.17 billion. 

Ethereum (ETH) handled $747 million in the same period. Its weekly volume was over $6.4 billion. The other top chains were BNB Smart Chain and Arbitrum, which processed tokens worth $3.86 billion and $2.32 billion.

Orca has been the biggest DEX in Solana’s ecosystem in the last seven days, followed by Raydium and Phoenix. 

Solana summer

Additional data shows that March was Solana’s best month as it handled cryptocurrencies worth $60 billion during the month.

It was followed by July when it handled coins worth $56 billion as Ethereum processed coins worth $52 billion.

Solana’s volume rose because of the strong comeback of some of its meme coins in the past few days. Popcat (POPCAT) token has risen by over 25% in the last seven days, making it the best-performing top ten meme coin. 

Dogwifhat (WIF) has risen by over 9.4% in this period, pushing its market cap to over $1.72 billion. Cat In A Dogs World (MEW) rose by 16.2% while Book of Meme jumped by 8.5%. In most cases, crypto volume rises when tokens are in an uptrend.

The other notable Solana news was the strong comeback in the non-fungible token industry. Data by Cryptoslam shows that the total Solana NFTs jumped by over 35% in the last seven days to $16.7 million.

The number of buyers rose by 153% to 220,000 while the most popular NFT collections were Sorare, DeGods, and Solana Monkey Business.

Solana has also made more headlines recently. Coinbase added Solana’s ckBTC support while the developers launched PlaySolana, a handheld gaming console. 

Solana’s DEX and NFT volume rose as the SOL token bounced back. It spiked in the last six consecutive days, its highest swing since Aug. 27. 

Sui, the popular Solana-killer, continued rising on Sunday, Sep. 15 as sentiment in the crypto industry improved.

Sui (SUI) jumped to an intraday high of $1.10, its highest level since Aug. 12, and 137% above its lowest point last month. This recovery makes it one of the best-performing top 100 cryptocurrencies.

Futures open interest jump

The coins recovery has coincided with strong demand in the futures market, where open interest has jumped to a record high. According to CoinGlass, the interest rose to $295 million, crossing the previous record high of  $289 million. It is a significant increase from August’s low of less than $60 million.

Futures open interest is an important number that looks at the volume of unfilled put and call orders. A higher figure is a sign that an asset is seeing substantial demand among futures traders. Most of this interest is among Bybit traders followed by Binance, and Bitget.

Additional data shows that Sui’s network is gaining traction among developers and users. The total value locked in its decentralized finance industry has risen by over 16% in the last 30 days to over $703 million. Most of these assets are in NAVI Protocol, Scallop Lend, Suilend, and Aftermath Finance.

Sui’s stablecoin volume has jumped to over $364 million while the volume of its decentralized exchange platforms has jumped by over 32% in the last seven days to almost $300 million. The most notable DEX platforms in its applications are Cetus, Kriya, and DeepBook.

Sui has also found use cases outside the crypto industry. In a statement last week, the network said that it was being used by 3DOS, a manufacturer of 3D printing devices. The company selected Sui because of its quick throughput and lower transaction costs. 

Sui price nears key resistance

On the daily chart, Sui has formed an encouraging and rare inverse head and shoulders pattern, which is often a bullish sign. It is now nearing its neckline at $1.165, its highest point in May and June and the 38.2% Fibonacci Retracement point.

Sui has also jumped above the 50-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages while the Percentage Price Oscillator has remained above the neutral point. 

Therefore, a break above the H&S neckline at $1.66 will likely lead to more upside as traders target the 50% retracement point at $1.3190.

Solana price has remained in a deep bear market, falling by over 30% from its highest point in 2024.

Solana (SOL), the fifth-largest cryptocurrency in the industry, was trading at $145, down from its year-to-date high of $210. Its valuation has retreated from a YTD high of $86 billion to $68 billion.

SOL is in a bear market because of its correlation with Bitcoin (BTC) and other altcoins. Bitcoin has dropped by almost 20% from the YTD high while coins like Ethereum (ETH), Avalanche (AVAX), and Cardano (ADA) are down by over 30%.

Altcoins like Solana typically make bigger moves than Bitcoin. They perform better when Bitcoin is rising and significantly underperform when it is in a downtrend. For example, BTC rose by 70% between Jan. 1 and March 24, while SOL and ETH rose by over 80% during the same period.

Solana has also retreated as it faces substantial competition from Tron (TRX), which recently launched SunPump, a meme coin generator. The DEX volume on Solana in the past seven days has fallen by almost 9% while Tron’s has risen by over 210% to $1.70 billion. 

Most of Solana’s meme coins have also retreated. Dogwifhat has dropped by almost 70% from its highest level this year, while Book of Meme (BOME) has fallen by 80% from its all-time high.

Tron has also overtaken Solana in DeFi total value locked, the number of active addresses, and stablecoins. Tron has over $8.3 billion in assets, 2.47 million in addresses, and almost $60 billion in stablecoins. In comparison, Solana has $5.16 billion, 1.74 million, and $3.9 billion, respectively.

Solana’s futures open interest has fallen

Meanwhile, Solana’s open interest in the futures market has been in a downtrend. Most recently, the interest peaked at $3 billion in July and has pulled back to $2 billion, signaling waning demand.

Solana has also dropped because of the ongoing performance of spot Ethereum ETFs. The latest data shows that they have not become popular. They have had cumulative outflows of $481 million and have shed assets in five of the last six weeks. 

Therefore, if the trend continues, there is a likelihood that companies like Blackrock, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton will not apply for a spot Solana ETF. The SEC has also been reluctant to approve these funds. Earlier this month, the agency turned down Cboe Global Markets’ 19b-4 filing for a Solana fund.

Technically, as shown above, the pullback is likely part of the formation of a bullish flag pattern. It is also part of the hand section of the cup and handle pattern on the weekly chart. If these patterns work out well, Solana will likely bounce back later this year.