Solana Surges Past Ethereum in Activity During Memecoin Frenzy, Despite Transaction Hiccups

Crypto News- Over the weekend, Solana stole the spotlight from Ethereum as the go-to platform for memecoin madness. With a total trading volume of $3.52 billion on March 16, Solana outpaced Ethereum by over $1.1 billion, according to DefiLlama. However, this surge in activity pushed Solana to its limits, resulting in numerous reports of failed or missing transactions across various platforms.

Reports from Solana validators, as shared by the pseudonymous user “Dagnum,” revealed that ping times reached between 20 and 40 seconds on March 16 at 8 pm UTC. This led to a staggering 50% failure rate in transactions for about 20 minutes, frustrating many users.

Solana Surges Past Ethereum in Activity During Memecoin Frenzy, Despite Transaction Hiccups

The spike in Solana’s network activity was primarily fueled by the frenzy surrounding new memecoins. One standout was Book of Meme (BOME), which skyrocketed from obscurity to a market capitalization of $1.45 billion within just 56 hours, drawing in eager investors. Similarly, Nap (NAP) saw a meteoric rise from $20 million to over $330 million in market cap in less than 18 hours, further adding to Solana’s network strain.

Amidst the chaos, Solana’s native token SOL experienced a significant price rally, reaching $200 and marking a 7.6% increase over the past week and an impressive 38.4% surge in the last month, as reported by CoinGecko. This surge propelled Solana to overtake Binance’s BNB, securing its position as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $88.5 billion.

Notably, Solana’s market cap now stands nearly $12 billion above its previous peak of $76.5 billion, attained on November 7, 2021, thanks to an increase in the total token supply. This remarkable growth underscores Solana’s growing dominance in the cryptocurrency landscape amidst the memecoin craze.