Odaily News The native token SOL of Solana has retreated by approximately 11% after encountering resistance at $93 last Wednesday, showing significantly weaker performance compared to the overall crypto market recently and repeatedly testing the $80 support level. Meanwhile, Solana network fees have been declining for two consecutive months, raising market concerns that its price may further retest the $75 level. On-chain data shows that Solana's current Total Value Locked (TVL) is about $6.3 billion, still significantly lagging behind Ethereum's $54.1 billion. However, Solana's network fees over the past 30 days remain 80% higher, primarily because Ethereum has reduced its mainnet fees through Layer2 Rollups and data Blob mechanisms.
Specifically, Solana's network fees in March dropped to $18.5 million, a 42% decrease from $30 million in January, mainly affected by the contraction in Decentralized Exchange (DEX) trading volume. Data shows that Solana DEX trading volume fell to $55.5 billion, the lowest level since September 2024. In comparison, Ethereum's DEX trading volume in March was $41 billion, down 23% from two months ago. However, when including Layer2 networks such as Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Optimism, their combined DEX market share has risen from 33% in January to 42%, challenging Solana's dominance and partly explaining SOL's current pressured trend.
Nevertheless, from an ecosystem fundamentals perspective, Solana still possesses underlying support. Over the past 30 days, Solana has 13 DApps with revenues exceeding $1 million, leading Ethereum's 11, and BNB Chain and Base each with 4. Protocol revenues, including projects like Helium Network, continue to attract developer and capital attention. Overall, despite the decline in DEX activity dragging down short-term performance, Solana's ecosystem profitability and developer appeal remain intact. The market currently lacks sufficient evidence to suggest that SOL will inevitably break below the $75 support level solely due to declining network fees. (Cointelegraph)
