SOL crosses $220, eyes fresh all-time high

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.

Soak it all in, SOL holders. 

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election ignited a crypto market rally. SOL reached a nearly three-year high Monday morning, crossing the $220 mark for the first time since early December 2021. The asset’s market capitalization also set a new record, crossing $104 billion for the first time, according to CoinGecko data. 

Solana’s chief rival ETH has been an even bigger beneficiary of the election pump, rising some 26% since Trump declared victory in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday, compared to an 18% jump for SOL. Bitcoin is up 13% in that span.

For the last several months, sources cited the election outcome repeatedly as a potential catalyst for SOL. The crypto industry has operated largely in a legal gray area in the US under the oversight of SEC Chair Gary Gensler, and Trump courted crypto voters and donors with the promise of a more friendly regulatory regime. 

Solana, which has spent 2024 trying to establish itself as part of a “big three” in crypto assets next to bitcoin and ether, arguably had the most at stake in the election out of any of them. In approving spot bitcoin and ether ETFs for trading this year, the SEC acknowledged both assets as commodities, meaning they can be bought and sold without running afoul of stricter securities trading laws. SOL, on the other hand, is one of a handful of assets the SEC currently paints as securities in its ongoing lawsuit against Coinbase. 

Being formally declared a crypto asset security by the SEC could present an existential risk for SOL, because the agency has been loath to let US firms register as broker-dealers who could facilitate crypto securities trading. In other words, SOL (and the several other alleged securities tokens) could have been functionally cut off from trading in the US, where some 60% of the world’s equity markets live.

M^0 chief growth officer Jacob Laufer cited SOL’s lingering securities law status getting resolved alongside the approval of pending spot SOL ETFs as sources of optimism surrounding Solana.

With friendlier regulators, SOL could be “poised” to capture institutional interest alongside the retail interest it has already drawn, Laufer said. Solana continues to be the top venue for memecoin trading, with the launchpad pump.fun topping $1 million in daily trading fees every day since Oct. 13. 

With SOL now sitting at around $220, traders will be looking toward $260, roughly the all-time high the asset set in November 2021. In comments to The Block this weekend, an analyst from Standard Chartered called a fresh SOL peak by the year’s end “inevitable.”

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.