Solana has continued to struggle below the $200 price level. In the Monday Feb.17, 2025 session, the coin has recorded a steep downward trend risking testing key support levels. This has further resulted in bearish sentiment across the market, especially Solana enthusiasts.
According to analysts, the recent decline in SOL may be attributed to the recent decline in Solana memecoins. The Libra (LIBRA) token, which resulted in a mega rug pull just a few hours after launch, has left the market questioning the credibility of memecoin on the Solana ecosystem.
Increased Rug Pulls on Solana Ecosystem Affect Prices
The Solana ecosystem is well known for its memecoin ecosystem with major memecoins like TRUMP and MELANIA making waves since the start of 2025. However, with an increase in rug pulls across Solana-based memecoins, the crypto market is opting out.
According to a recent post by Ash Crypto, a top crypto analyst with 1.6 million followers on X, “the Solana and Sol memes are dumping hard because people are realizing this whole game was rigged.” His comment follows the recent rug pull which involved a tweet by the president of Argentina Milei.
Solana and Sol memes are dumping
hard because people are realizing this
whole game was rigged and it was all
just wealth transfer / value extraction
from crypto gamblers to project insiders.Normal people never had a chance coz
it was all rigged from the start.— Ash Crypto (@Ashcryptoreal) February 17, 2025
However, the Libra token incident is not the first of its kind on the ecosystem. Pump.fun, which has enabled easy creation and launch of memecoins, has contributed heightened scams due to ease of creation and launch of memecoins. In return, Solana prices have dropped as investors opt out.
Solana Memecoin Frenzy is Fading Away
The number of unique buyers of Solana memecoins exceeded those of sellers previously. But, looking at the SOL memecoins chart by Dune the number of buyers against sellers has narrowed indicating slowing demand for these memecoins.
The recent decline in Solana memecoins demand can be associated with the market opting out as the ecosystem has been linked with several memecoin scams. As Ash Crypto wrote, it’s “value extraction from crypto gamblers to project insiders.”
SOL Dips Over 6% As Memecoin Frenzy Fades
Based on data on Coinmarketcap, as of the time of writing Solana is trading at $178.38 way below its all-time high around $293.31 recorded on Jan.19, 2025. The current price of SOL marks a 6.50% decrease on the day.
Currently, SOL has a trading volume of $3.73 Billion over the last 24 hours. Trading volume on Solana is on the upside as the coin records 111.17% increase in the same period. This simply means that selling pressure is mounting strongly and a bearish trend is underway.
Additionally, data on Market Prophit, an AI analytical platform measuring social sentiment, shows that the crowd has flipped bearish. Based on this metric, Solana could dip further since the market is highly concerned.
SOL Whale Wallets With 100+ Tokens Decline 2.24%
The number of wallets holding over 100 plus Solana has declined over the last two weeks. According to a post by Ali Martinez, these wallets have “declined by 2.24% over the past two weeks, dropping from 154,653 to 151,184!”
This further supports the bearish sentiment that is prevalent across Solana. If SOL bulls fail to regain control, the price could continue to plummet towards the next key support at $155 level.
