Solana Jumps 7% As Crypto ‘Hotspot’ Project Helium Eyes Merge

It has been a great day for Solana.

The ninth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has risen by around 7% in the last 24 hours.

SOL, Solana’s native token, jumped from $35.2 to $38.87 early Tuesday morning. It has since rebounded to $38.27 at press time.

Solana is a fast, proof of effort (PoS) blockchain network that allows many of the same operations as Ethereumincluding decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The latest bullish action is supported by a massive increase in trading volume. During the last 24 hours, CoinMarketCap reporting a 93.74% increase across the board Binance, FTX, Coin base, and Kucoin. The most popular trading pair is the US dollar or its stablecoin equivalents.

Going back even further, Solana’s token has risen by a whopping 15% in the past week. Last Tuesday, SOL traded hands for approximately $33.

Over the past 24 hours, traders with short SOL positions have also been blown out. In total, there have been $4.09 million in liquidations, of which more than 82% were short positions. The majority of these bearish liquidations occurred on Binance, according to CoinGlass.

Traders shorting an asset, whether crypto or otherwise, first borrow the asset from a broker or exchange. They then sell the borrowed asset on the open market with the expectation that the price of the asset will fall. If the asset actually goes down, the trader will buy it back at a cheaper price, repay the loan (denominated in the asset, not fiat), and pocket the difference as profit.

However, if the market moves against the trader, they may end up losing money by buying back an asset that has increased in value to repay the loan.

What drives Solana?

SOL’s recent price action is likely related to an increase in Solana-based NFT volume and the potential merger of Helium Network, a popular internet-of-things crypto project, into Solana.

According to data obtained from NansenOn September 12, the number of Solana NFT transactions reached an all-time high, with more than one million total transactions across marketplaces and mints.

Data from CryptoSlam suggests that y00ts, Sunswipeand ABC (abracadabra) NFT collections drive this activity.

Alongside rising NFT activity, Helium is also looking to move its entire business to the Solana blockchain.

Helium is a crypto-powered, peer-to-peer network of various physical “hotspots” that aim to provide improved internet connectivity to low-coverage zones. People who host and operate a hotspot are rewarded with native HNT tokens.

The draw, which is outlined in Helium Improvement Proposal (HIP) 70would cause Helium to move from its original blockchain, bringing with it the HNT token, governance procedures and mining rewards, to Solana.

Importantly, it would also give the Helium community more access to Solana’s DeFi and NFT ecosystem.