In a significant milestone for Solana, its SOL token has overtaken Binance’s BNB to claim the position of the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The surge in SOL’s price, rising by 7.56% in the 24-hour period leading up to 1:50 pm UTC, saw it trading at $112.52, with a market cap of $49.36 billion, surpassing BNB’s $48.5 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
SOL’s Price Surge Amidst Crypto Fear and Greed Index Spike
The rise in SOL’s price coincided with the Crypto Fear and Greed Index hitting its highest level since November 2021, when Bitcoin reached $69,000. This surge in the index followed Bitcoin’s surpassing of $50,000 for the first time since December 2021. Despite facing an outage on Feb. 6, SOL managed to outperform BNB.
The rally in SOL’s price could be attributed to the on-chain approval of the Pyth DAO Constitution, which aimed to establish a decision-making framework for the Pyth DAO, governing the Pyth Network.
Solana’s Recent Performance and Milestones
Despite the network outage, SOL has gained 19.99% in the past seven days, although it remains 57% lower than its all-time high of $260.06, achieved on Nov. 6, 2021. Additionally, Solana Mobile’s Chapter 2 smartphone surpassed 100,000 pre orders within 30 days, marking a significant achievement for the platform.
The preorder window for the Chapter 2 smartphone priced at $450 will close on Feb. 14, as announced by Solana Mobile. Shipments are expected to begin in early 2025.
Binance’s Regulatory Challenges Continue
Meanwhile, BNB has faced challenges amidst Binance’s ongoing regulatory issues. The sentencing date of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, originally set for Feb. 23, has been postponed to April 30. Zhao, who is currently out on a $175 million bond and residing in the United States, awaits further developments in the regulatory landscape.
