Solana rallies as risk appetite returns
Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow
Akif CUBUK/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
After months of little ado about everything, the markets are finally seeing some of their old momentum.
As BTC surged above $122,000 on Monday, Solana was pulled along in the gravity tail of bitcoin’s inflation-cooled rebound. SOL jumped 13% to reach $174.45 — its highest level in weeks — likely buoyed by the excitement around pump.fun’s recent, highly successful ICO.
On macro, this week’s backdrop gave just enough breathing room for risk assets to stretch.
While the CPI came in hotter than expected at 2.7% year over year, the PPI cooled to 2.3%, below forecasts. In short, the split was just soft enough to soothe the market’s anxiety over imminent Fed tightening, even if the July 30 FOMC meeting remains priced for a hold.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to urge Republicans to support the GENIUS Act and a broader package of digital asset legislation, including stablecoin regulation and an outright ban on a Fed-issued CBDC.
While the House initially failed to pass the resolution, a motion to reconsider passed 215-211 the following day.
Back yonder in crypto land, the news spurred continued ETF inflows, thin but directional conviction from institutional buyers and a modest uptick in leverage.
Bitcoin’s price hovers just below a cluster of liquidity between $119k and $121k, with market makers circling a $120k target before month’s end.
Solana is showing signs of independent strength. Transaction activity holds steady at 100+ million per day, excluding validator votes, while staking remained healthy at a 66.43% participation rate and a net 7.17% yield.
Network revenue continues its uptick from a post-May lull, and app-level earnings showed similar resilience, with consistent fee generation from DEXs, token vending platforms and staking derivatives sustaining developer and validator income.
Predictably, the standout this week was pump.fun. Despite challengers like letsbonk.fun drawing attention, pump.fun saw nearly 30 million trades and over $1.7 billion in DEX volume, according to recent insights from Blockworks Research. 94% of this was concentrated in meme tokens. That said, Bonk is still winning on overall trading volume.
Pump also completed its blockbuster token generation event that targeted up to $1.3 billion across public and private allocations, with a $720 million private raise confirmed and a 25% discretionary buyback commitment.
With BTC defying gravity again and the Solana rabble growing louder, it’s looking like those who patiently waited out the lull may finally find themselves back in action.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
