Analysis

Solana Gimmers as Monthly Active Developers Spike as Price Slumps Below $100: Buy Signal?

Despite a recent price dip, Solana's developer community held steady at 2,500 monthly active users throughout 2023.

Jim Haastrup

Key Insights

  • Despite a recent price dip, Solana's developer community held steady at 2,500 monthly active users throughout 2023.
  • Solana's developer retention saw a 50% increase in the last three months, coinciding with the October price boom
  • With only half the size of Ethereum's developer base, Solana shows impressive developer activity, potentially driven by Ethereum's gas fee issues.
  • Analyst Ali identifies a bull flag formation suggesting Solana could break its previous high and reach $163.
  • The $100 mark is a major support/resistance zone for Solana, indicating a high potential for price swings in the near future. 

Solana, after emerging as the best-performing cryptocurrency by far in the last quarter of 2023, has cooled off as of recent.

However, several metrics appear to be coming back, such as the network's developer retention and its number of monthly active developers, as outlined by the Solana Foundation.

Better still, Solana has crossed the $100 mark once again, and may now be poised to rally further up from here, as outlined below:

Solana Attracts And Retains Developers

According to a recent report released by the Solana Foundation on 9 January, key network metrics exploded at the end of 2023, and some of this success may spill into 2024.

The Solana Foundation's report states that Solana had around 2,500 active developers on a monthly basis in 2023.

Solana's rising metrics

What's more, this figure remained relatively steady throughout the year, showing the network's ability to draw in and keep fresh talent.

The Solana Foundation also pointed out that this figure could be more, because their calculations were mostly based on developers working on public repositories, and not proprietary or private projects on Solana.

Moreover, the Solana Foundation also reported a 50% increase in developer retention on the network over the last three months, just as Solana's price surge started in October.

Solana Challenges Ethereum's Dominance

The expansion of Solana's developer community also directly challenged Ethereum's, according to data from electric capital, considering the relative size of both networks

For example, Electric Capital shows that Ethereum had 5,769 monthly active developers as of October 1, 2023, compared to Solana's 2500.

Ethereum's developer metrics | Source: Electric Capital

This means that Ethereum's developer activity is only twice that of Solana's, despite Ethereum being several times larger.

This increase may have been due to Ethereum's significantly higher gas prices and network congestion, which may have made interacting with DApps costly and challenging for consumers and developers.

Solana's rise in network metrics may also have been due to the popularity of SOL-based memecoins, such as BONK, Myro and Dogwifhat.

Solana's Outlook: Is A Rally to $163 Inbound?

According to a recent tweet from top analyst, Ali, Solana may be poised for strong upside momentum soon.

A new outlook on Solana

Ali says that Solana is showing signs of forming a bull flag, and could be ready to break above its previous local high, as shown below:

Solana's price outlook

Ali maintains that if Solana breaks and closes "decisively" above the $110 mark, SOlana could go as high up as $163!

Solana, according to CoinMarketCap, currently trades at $100 on the dot.

Solana's price action

This level is a strong psychological support/resistance, meaning that both bulls and bears are active here.

Solana is bound to see a lot more volatility around this price level, and investors are advised to be patient as Solana navigates its way around.

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