SOL sinks to April 2025 lows as macro sell-off deepens

Solana’s native token SOL fell to $100.30 on Saturday, marking its lowest level since April 2025 amid a broad market unwind.

The token later recovered slightly above $102, but remained under pressure after an 18% decline over the past 30 days.

Market participants linked the move to wider weakness across altcoins, commodities, equities, and risk assets.

Silver prices collapsed by 26% on Friday, reinforcing fears of further downside across speculative markets.

More than $165 million in leveraged long SOL positions were liquidated, further weighing on sentiment.

Risk aversion intensified following rising geopolitical tensions involving Iran and renewed recession concerns.

Investor confidence weakened after Amazon announced 16,000 white-collar job cuts earlier in the week.

Concerns also emerged after reports showed OpenAI accounted for a large share of Microsoft’s Azure cloud backlog.

Additional pressure came from reports that Nvidia would no longer pursue a $100 billion investment in OpenAI.

OpenAI is expected to post net losses of $14 billion in 2026, according to industry estimates cited by media reports.

Despite the negative macro backdrop, Solana’s onchain activity continued to outperform rival blockchain networks.

Solana ranked second in network fees and Total Value Locked, reinforcing its position behind Ethereum.

Network fees on Solana rose 81% above trend levels over the past 30 days, according to Nansen data.

Active addresses on the Solana network increased by 62% over the same period.

Total transactions on Solana reached 2.29 billion, far exceeding activity across Ethereum and its layer-2 networks.

Ethereum and its scaling solutions processed a combined 623 million transactions during the period.

Base layer Ethereum fees rose just 11%, highlighting Solana’s dominance in decentralised application activity.

Demand for leveraged bullish positions on SOL faded as traders shifted towards cash and government bonds.

Several technology stocks, including Unity, AppLovin, Figma, and HubSpot, fell more than 30% over 30 days.

Gold also failed to act as a safe haven, sliding 13% from its recent all-time high.

The annualised funding rate for SOL perpetual futures dropped to minus 17%, signalling extreme bearish positioning.

Negative funding indicates short sellers are paying to maintain positions, a condition that rarely persists.

The move coincided with political disputes over United States government funding.

The US Senate approved a funding package alongside a short-term stopgap measure on Friday.

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the final version early next week.

Solana spot exchange-traded funds recorded $11 million in net outflows on Friday, according to CoinGlass data.

Public companies holding SOL as a treasury asset also faced mounting pressure.

Shares of Forward Industries, Upexi, and Sharps Technology traded more than 20% below net asset value.

Analysts say a recovery in SOL will depend on improved global growth prospects and easing geopolitical risks.

At the time of reporting, Solana price was $106.04.