A sudden surge hit the prices of Solana (SOL) as traders and investors continued to wager on the Blockchain platform’s success in the NFT (non-fungible token) and DeFi (Decentralized Finance) sector. This price spike was a result of a hackathon, called Ignition, to develop new platforms for the Solana Blockchain.
Impact on Solana’s Value
The exchange rate for SOL/USD (US Dollar) reached a record high at $146.28, following a month-to-date spike of 35%. Solana now ranks seventh on the list of most valuable cryptocurrency projects. This comes after Solana’s market value rose to $41 billion as the SOL/USD yearly returns shot up beyond 7,500%.
According to the head of analytics at CEX.IO, Yuriy Mazur, in the coming seasons the SOL/USD price can reach up to $150. But everything depends on Solana’s performance in the non-fungible token and decentralized finance space, as the SOL/USD pair is in a price discovery phase.
Many investors now consider Solana as a strong competitor of Ethereum. Mazur says unlike Ethereum, Solana incurs lower gas expenses and offers more scalability. If Solana were to truly compete with Blockchain giants like Ethereum and Cordana, more updates and efficient functionality is required.
The Hackathon’s Contribution
Solana initiated its Hackathon event ‘Ignition’ to attract programmers and developers to its Blockchain platform, for ideas and innovation. The series will run till October 8.
More bullish backstops appeared after Ignition launched. In fact, the price of SOL shot up to $100 for the first time in history. One reason for this surge could be that speculators thought Ignition was a SOL burning event.
