Solana has just concluded its most historic month ever. October brought the network a fresh consensus engine, block speeds that doubled, record-breaking tokenized assets, and a flurry of new partnerships spanning payments and Wall Street.
Yet, the market value has not caught up just yet. Following a market-wide sell-off this week, SOL is changing hands near $89.25 after sliding under $90. Nevertheless, with network fundamentals sitting at all-time highs, this disconnect might be short-lived.
Historically, technological leaps of this magnitude tend to become reflected in the valuation once the wider market regains stability.
Furthermore, technical charts are already signaling that a turnaround could be near.
Solana’s October In Numbers
In a summary thread published on X, the Solana Foundation characterized October as “a month of records across network speed, tokenized assets, payments, and institutional access.”
Here is a breakdown of what changed:
- Faster blocks: The final implementation of SIMD-0525 on October 9 reduced Solana’s target slot duration from 400 milliseconds down to 200 milliseconds.
- New consensus engine: TowerBFT was succeeded on mainnet by Alpenglow on October 21, aiming for a finality time of approximately 150 milliseconds compared to the previous 12.8 seconds. This transition occurred live without requiring a network restart.
- Record RWAs: Real-world assets tokenized on the blockchain scaled a new peak at $5 billion.
- Trading and stablecoins: Decentralized exchange (DEX) volume reached roughly $60 billion, while stablecoin holders grew to an active count of 14 million addresses.
- Wall Street access: J.P. Morgan Asset Management integrated tokenized money market funds onto Solana utilizing Morgan Money, alongside portfolio and stock product expansions by Securitize and Ondo.
- Payments: Integrations with Solana were rolled out by Samsung Wallet, Fiserv, and Western Union, though certain implementations remain limited geographically or are currently operating as pilots.
Additionally, Alpenglow alters validator voting mechanics. Because votes are no longer submitted as transactions directly on-chain, valuable block space is conserved. Given that validator votes historically comprised approximately 63% of Solana’s overall transaction volume, transaction-count tracking dashboards will register a steep decline that does not indicate reduced network utility.
Why The Solana Price Hasn’t Caught Up Yet
The timing of these upgrades proved to be the primary obstacle, arriving precisely as macroeconomic headwinds applied simultaneous pressure to all risk assets, leaving the market no breathing room to price in Solana’s achievements.
Risk assets have since suffered significant blows stemming from midterm election outcomes and an AI-driven technology sector sell-off. On Thursday, Bitcoin retreated to its crucial $76,000 threshold, dragging altcoins down alongside it.
Institutional interest has similarly cooled off. Coinpedia reports that spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have gone 12 consecutive trading sessions without registering any net inflows. Solana products experienced roughly $25 million in outflows solely on November 6, compounding wider market losses that included $412 million leaving Bitcoin ETFs and $93 million exiting Ethereum funds.
This represents a dramatic shift from earlier in the year when inflows into Solana ETFs surpassed $1.16 billion.
RSI Divergence Hints At A Bullish Reversal
Fortunately, price charts do not present a purely pessimistic picture. Even as the price of Solana continues printing lower lows, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has begun an upward trajectory.
This classic bullish divergence implies that selling momentum is dissipating despite the drifting price action—a technical formation frequently observed near the termination of a corrective phase.
Crypto trader Sweep notes that a scenario where SOL price falls while the RSI climbs serves as an indicator of seller exhaustion, echoing market setups that have historically preceded aggressive rallies.
To validate this signal, market bulls will want to witness SOL successfully breach its short-term moving averages. Should this occur against the backdrop of a tamer macroeconomic climate, October’s record-breaking operational milestones provide ample fundamental backing for an upward surge.
Solana Price Levels To Watch
The immediate objective for bulls involves recapturing the $90 threshold. Having surrendered this level during the week, converting it back into a reliable support floor would serve as the initial confirmation that the technical divergence is playing out.
Beyond that point, the $95 zone represents the subsequent resistance barrier, followed closely by the psychological milestone of $100. A decisive move past $100 would invalidate the sequence of lower highs and bring October peaks back into the spotlight.
Conversely, the nearest support zone rests around $86. A failure to hold this area risks exposing the asset to a deeper descent toward the $80 region, where buyers previously stepped in during the recent slide beneath $80.
The primary catalyst to monitor remains ETF inflows. A steady revival of incoming institutional capital would supply the Solana price with the institutional demand it has lacked, allowing the market to finally price in the network enhancements achieved in October. For ongoing updates, check out the latest altcoin news.
What do you think happens next?
Is Solana’s record October about to show up in the price, and could SOL be back above $100 before the end of the year?
Written by
Yuki Yamamoto
