Currently, Solana is barely managing to stay above US$166 in order to counter decline

Over the past year, Solana has managed to record a 10,000% growth and emerged as the strong 'Ethereum Killer'. After reaching a record high in November, Solana's price has followed a downward trend ever since. Currently, SOL is merely managing to stay above US$166 in order to counter further declines. Therefore, we explore the cryptocurrency's possibilities to reach US$260 in 2022.

Solana gained popularity over its blockchain ecosystem. It is one of the world's fastest-growing decentralized platforms that currently has over 879 ongoing projects. Solana platform houses decentralized applications (dApps), smart contracts, and even gaming applications. Despite its amazing features, Solana recently faced backlash over a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Although the blockchain remained online during the critical hours, the network speed dropped significantly. This isn't the first time such an incident has happened. Solana has gone offline for about 17 hours back in September after a similar attack. According to a Grayscale report, the Solana network uses blockchain technology that is vulnerable to attacks. Therefore, SOL coin faced criticism and also entered a downward phase. However, besides this event, Solana's price is also affected by the gloomy market trend. Yes, currently, every top cryptocurrency including Bitcoin and Ethereum is in the fall. This is having a serious influence on the altcoin market. Fortunately, these distractions seem to be a brief blow on SOL's face as experts predict an upcoming surge. Therefore, we explain its possibilities to touch US$260 in 2022.

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Solana Faced a DDoS Attack Recently

To be precise, it was not the DDOS attack that left investors in chaos. It was actually the sudden drop in transaction speeds that was observed across various domains. After the incident, the platform tweeted stating, "We are aware that tokens take a long time to distribute. The Solana chain is being overloaded with DDoS attacks that have clogged the network causing delays."

However, the company explained that the network didn't go down at any point and users can also verify the transactions as usual. Unfortunately, it takes longer than usual for transactions because Solana blocks that took an excessive amount of computing power are not properly metered by the network.

SOL's Potential in 2022

Solana's ability to stand as a heavy competitor of Etheruem has made it a major cryptocurrency. It provides sophisticated smart contracts that give an edge to the platform against ETHER. Recently, the network's total value locked (TVL) grew by US$660 million and stretched across more than 40 decentralized applications to hit an all-time high above US$11 billion. Some of the other factors that could contribute to Solana's price growth in 2022 are as follows.

• Similar to Bitcoin, Solana is also gaining institutional appetite. Ethereum's leading dApp has over 188,200 active users while Solana's NFT marketplace, Magic Eden, has over 58,400 weekly active addresses.
• Despite facing a sudden drop since November, the market is managing to reside at US$860 million. This market trend places SOL as the third derivative by size.
• Solana is adding more activity to its portfolio constantly. The network's TVL increased by 15x over the past six months and Solana's dApps users are nearly half the amount of users on the Ethereum network.
• Solana has recently partnered with Forte and Griffin gaming to open its door for gaming development. The collaboration is expected to provide end-to-end solutions for token-based game economies and NFTs that benefit the communities.

Will Solana Touch US$260 Next year?

While the recent DDoS attack was marked as a worrisome event, it could also be a sign of an upcoming cryptocurrency wave. Solana uses the unique proof-of-history (PoH) validation protocol, which is similar to PoS, but more efficient. The only thing that Solana has to worry about is its security issues. If the platform manages to overcome this menace, then US$260 will be easy for SOL.

Price graphs represent that Solana is currently on a fall phase that is heading towards support. It is barely managing to keep up with the US$160 mark. If it finds support here, then it will bounce and touch its resistance level of US$187. But if it fails to find a leaning spot, then Solana's price will further fall to US$140 before 2021 ends. On the other hand, a Kraken report has suggested that SOL will reach US$260 in the first quarter of 2022.