Solana November 2024 Update

Momentum Metrics

Solana registered $328M in net inflows from other ecosystems in November, only surpassed by Base, which saw $846M, per Artemis data. Solana and Base are appealing to somewhat different segments, though it’s noteworthy that Solana registered $9.31M in net outflows to Base, a trend to keep an eye on. Most likely, these flows were prompted by the surge of memecoin activity on Base. The majority of inflows to Solana and Base (90% and 85%, respectively) originated from the Ethereum mainnet.

Market positioning reflects bullish sentiment, with SOL open interest across centralized exchanges reaching an all-time high of $6B and significantly elevated funding rates. Institutional interest in SOL is also rising, reflected by recent spot ETF applications. Bitwise and Grayscale are the two latest issuers that have filed for a Solana ETF, joining 21Shares, VanEck, and Canary, who had already filed S-1s for a Solana ETF. With Gary Gensler stepping down as SEC chair and a more favorable regulatory environment, it is not unreasonable to expect spot SOL ETFs sometime in 2025.  

Network Health

Solana's meteoric rise in onchain activity has caused the average fee to reach unprecedented levels. However, the median fee has remained flat thanks to Solana's parallel execution and local fee markets, showing users can pay more for specific transactions without hiking global fees. In contrast, Ethereum's average and median fees move relatively in unison due to a rise in the global base fee when demand increases.