Amid a frantic rush into Solana-based memecoins, the Solana network faced significant strain over the weekend, struggling to cope with the overwhelming surge in activity. Solana’s total trading volume surged past Ethereum‘s, reaching $3.52 billion and surpassing Ethereum’s daily volume by over $1.1 billion, according to data from DefiLlama.
Network struggles amidst memecoin craze
Users experienced frequent failed or missing transactions as the Solana network grappled with the influx of activity. Solana validator data revealed that the network’s ping time ranged between 20 and 40 seconds on March 16, resulting in approximately 50% of transactions failing for about 20 minutes.
An extraordinary appetite for new memecoins primarily drove the surge in Solana network activity. Notably, on March 14, traders flocked to a newly launched memecoin called Book of Meme (BOME), which skyrocketed from obscurity to a market capitalization of $1.45 billion in just 56 hours. Another memecoin, Nap (NAP), also gained significant traction, witnessing its market cap surge from around $20 million to over $330 million in less than 18 hours.
Solana’s price rally and market cap ascension
The price of Solana’s native token (SOL) surged in tandem with the heightened network activity, with SOL currently trading at $200, marking a 7.6% increase over the last week and a remarkable 38.4% surge in the last month, according to CoinGecko data. Solana’s impressive rally propelled it past Binance‘s BNB to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, standing at $88.5 billion.
Solana’s market cap surged to nearly $12 billion, above its peak of $76.5 billion on November 7, 2021. This remarkable increase can be attributed to an overall rise in the total supply of Solana tokens.
