Solana, the third most popular blockchain, has experienced significant growth in recent weeks due to AI memecoins, a unique niche in the crypto world that combines artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies inspired by internet jokes. This surge has propelled Sol, the native token of the Solana blockchain which many memecoins are based on, above $175 for the first time in two months.
Despite the broader crypto market showing signs of consolidation this week after hitting early October lows, Solana’s rise has outpaced that of major cryptocurrencies. Sol has outperformed Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and others included in the CoinDesk 20 Index. Solana has seen a 19% increase in value over the last seven days, while Bitcoin has risen by 0.8%, and Ethereum and XRP have experienced a decrease of 3%.
The recent price movements of Solana this month, positioning itself as an alternative to Ethereum’s high fees and slow transaction speeds, have pushed SOL to a new all-time high against Ethereum, with 1 Sol being equivalent to 0.07 Ethereum, and its highest price against Bitcoin since August.
The emergence of AI memecoins has caught the attention of the crypto community since the introduction of Goatseus Maximus, a new memecoin that sparked discussions about the fusion of these two technologies. This excitement has led to a record high of nearly 9 million daily active users on the Solana blockchain and transaction fees reaching $4.5 million on Wednesday, according to DeFiLlama data.
Goatseus Maximus, or GOAT, was launched on October 10 by an anonymous developer known as Pump.fun and gained widespread attention when the AI bot, Truth Terminal, endorsed it on X.
Founded on the AI bot’s love for goat memes, the token has reached a market cap of $722 million since its inception two weeks ago, sparking the creation of several new AI-generated memecoins.
This sector has achieved a market cap of over $2 billion, with a 24% increase in the last day, according to CoinGecko. Other memecoins based on Solana, such as “Popcat” and “cat in a dogs world,” have also experienced a surge of over 20% this week.
Another contributing factor to Solana’s recent surge may be the rapid growth of decentralized finance (DeFi).
Solana has seen a growth of over 450% this year. Since January, the total value locked on Solana—referring to the U.S. dollar value of digital assets staked on a blockchain through DeFi—has nearly quadrupled to $6.9 billion.
