Three Reasons Why Solana (SOL) could Rise to $150

The price of Solana's native token, SOL, is up more than 17% over the last seven days to a high of $115 on Feb. 13. The latest rally saw SOL overtake Binance's BNB token to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to the CoinMarketCap ranking.

Airdrops and the network's provision of more affordable solutions and the ability to rebound from the latest outage are the driving forces behind Solana's bullish run.

What are the factors likely to push SOL toward $150 and beyond?

Solana's market cap surpasses that of BNB to take 4th place

Solana's run to $115 took its market capitalization to $50.32 billion, surpassing that of its rival layer 1 token BNB to claim the fourth spot.

Solana's market cap vs. BNB. Source: TradingView

SOL is up 20% over the last one month and by 72% year-to-date (YTD) leading to growth in its market capitalization. In December 2023, SOL overtook XRP in market value and secured a spot among the top 5 largest cryptocurrencies.

The growth of Solana's price has caused an increase in interest in the ecosystem and activity on the blockchain.

The surge in Solana's price comes as the Crypto Fear and Greed Index hit its highest level since November 2021 when SOL reached $260. The index soared to reach this milestone a day after Bitcoin (BTC) crossed the $50,000 mark for the first time in two years.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me

Solana unfazed by the 5-hour network outage

The SOL token managed to surpass the BNB despite the Solana network suffering an outage on Feb. 6. The outage which lasted close to 5 hours prompted validators to coordinate a software update and restart from a specific slot.

During the downtime, exchanges halted the withdrawal and deposit of Solana and Solana SPL tokens. This affected the ability of the users to interact with DApps. Note that Solana is not new outages, it has experienced twelve similar outages in the past two years.

What sets it apart from others is its closely coordinated software development that enables Solana to formulate and implement upgrades faster than networks compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

While Ethereum developers take years to develop, test and implement a new software solution, a similar effort takes a few hours on the Solana mainnet. This difference explains why SOL token was not impacted by the recent network downtime.

Is SOL's rounded bottom pattern a hint of things to come?

The Solana price action has painted a rounded bottom chart pattern on the daily chart. This is a highly bullish chart pattern that projects a massive breakout on the upside after the price breaks above the neckline.

In SOL's case, a daily candlestick close above the pattern's neckline at $120 would confirm a bullish breakout. The target is set at $159, a 41% ascent from the current price.

SOL/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

This positive outlook is validated by the rising relative strength index (RSI). The price strength at 66 suggested that the buyers still dominated the market.

On the downside, a drop below the pattern would suggest the inability of the buyers to sustain higher levels. The first line of defense would emerge from the $100 psychological level. Additional support lines would emerge from $95 and later the pattern's bottom at $82.