Solana price drops as a “giga bull” predicts it could rise to $500

Solana (SOL) has recently experienced a significant decline, entering what some are calling a local bear market. The price of Solana dropped by 20% from its highest point this year, causing its market capitalization to shrink to $102 billion. This decline is part of a larger crypto sell-off, with other layer-1 and layer-2 cryptocurrencies such as Avalanche, Ethereum, Arbitrum, and BNB also experiencing losses. Meme coins within the Solana ecosystem, including Dogwifhat, Bonk, Popcat, and Peanut the Squirrel, have also plunged over 20% in just the past 24 hours. As a result, the combined market cap of Solana-related meme coins has decreased to $17.7 billion.

This downturn has led to a lot of uncertainty in the market, with analysts and investors divided on whether the current pullback is temporary or if it signals the beginning of a new bear market. However, amid this downturn, some crypto analysts remain bullish on Solana’s long-term prospects, pointing to technical patterns that suggest significant future gains.

Notably, McKenna, a well-known crypto analyst with over 93,000 followers on X, has boldly declared himself a “Solana giga bull.” He predicted that Solana could eventually rise to $500 based on a cup-and-handle chart pattern forming on the monthly chart. Similarly, another popular analyst, Jelle, pointed to the same pattern on the weekly chart, predicting that Solana could potentially surge to $600. A jump to $600 from the current price would represent nearly a 200% increase.

Despite the recent price decline, Solana remains one of the strongest projects in the crypto industry in terms of fundamentals. It has become a preferred blockchain for developers, particularly for building meme coins and decentralized applications (dApps). Solana has generated over $660 million in fees this year, and it boasts over $8 billion in total value locked (TVL), with stablecoin volumes exceeding $24.8 billion. Furthermore, Solana has emerged as the leading blockchain for decentralized exchanges (DEXs), recording a 30-day trading volume of over $151 billion—almost double that of Ethereum.

Looking at the technical charts, Solana appears to be forming a larger cup-and-handle (C&H) pattern. The price has recently pulled back to a key support level at $206, which marks the upper boundary of a smaller cup-and-handle formation. This suggests that Solana might be in the process of forming the handle of a larger bullish C&H pattern. If this pattern plays out, technical analysis suggests that Solana could reach as high as $520, representing a 97% increase from the current level.

Overall, while Solana’s price has faced significant short-term pressure, the strong fundamentals and promising technical outlook offer hope for a potential rally in the near future. If the larger cup-and-handle pattern plays out, Solana could see substantial gains, further solidifying its position as one of the top-performing cryptocurrencies.