Solana DeFi, Gaming Tokens Show Relative Strength in Market-Wide Crash

Recession fears, the collapse of the Japanese Yen, and the threat of war loom large over financial markets all over the globe.

Prices across traditional and crypto markets are tanking, with assets like Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) currently down 23.8% and 27.5% respectively on weekly timeframes. 

Amidst the chaos, which sectors of the Solana ecosystem have shrugged off the damage, and who’s been left worse for wear?

Solana DeFi Tokens Hold Strong

Solana DeFi has enjoyed a meteoric 2024, with network TVL (Total Value Locked) steadily increasing and DEX volumes soaring to unprecedented heights. 

Perhaps as a result, Solana DeFi tokens have held up remarkably well during the market downturn, with many key ecosystem pillars outperforming SOL over the last seven days.

DeFi tokens like Jito (JTO), Jupiter (JUP), and Save Finance (SLND) weathered the storm, maintaining a close correlation with SOL throughout the market turmoil. While SOL suffered maximum drawdowns of 35.9% on a weekly timeframe JUP followed the base asset closely, enduring a 37% drop.

Meanwhile, JTO and SLND weathered smaller drops and effectively outperformed SOL. Down 34.1% and 20.5% respectively, JTO and SLND witnessed proportionally lower sell pressure than SOL.

Outside the DeFi sector, Solana gaming has also shown that its advocates aren’t easily shaken out. Solana-based gaming tokens have shown plenty of strength in the face of tumultuous conditions.

Star Atlas (ATLAS) and Aurory (AURY) both outperformed SOL on the recent drop. Down 24% and 11.3% respectively, these gaming tokens have proven to be some of the ecosystem’s best performers. 

Meme Coins Hit Hard

Best known for their wild unpredictably and outsized gains and losses, meme coins unsurprisingly witnessed the fiercest volatility. 

Among the biggest losers on a weekly timeframe, BILLY and MUMU both suffered drawdowns of over 60%, resulting in devastating losses for holders.

Ecosystem pillars like WIF and POPCAT weren’t much better off, with these larger caps also plummeting by 50.4% and 53.1% respectively.

Establishing itself as one of Solana’s strongest meme coins, BONK handled itself relatively well, trending down 33.2% on a weekly timeframe.

However, BONK remains under a cloud of uncertainty due to the upcoming unlock of over 1T BONK tokens valued at over $18M USD, based on Flipside data.

Solana Bounces Back

Since the debilitating drop, SOL has been one of the top performers in the early stages of a market recovery. After touching a local bottom of $113, SOL has bounced as much as 15% in the last three hours to reclaim $130.

However, it is still far too early to tell if the market has reclaimed its bullish trend. The threat of a global recession and mounting geopolitical tensions have financial markets across the world in a grip of fearful uncertainty.

Despite the chaos, the comparative resilience shown by Solana tokens could be seen as a positive indicator that the ecosystem may continue its impressive performance when better market conditions return.

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