Solana’s SOL token has achieved a significant milestone in the cryptocurrency market, surpassing Binance’s BNB token to claim the position of the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by total capitalization.
This development comes as SOL witnessed a remarkable price surge of 22% within 7 hours, reaching $116. According to CoinMarketCap data, SOL’s market capitalization stands at around $50 billion, surpassing BNB’s $49.8 billion.
Solana’s ascent to surpass BNB comes despite the network experiencing an outage on Feb. 6, demonstrating resilience even after suffering five hours of downtime, which was attributed to a bug that caused transactions to enter an infinite loop.
Likewise, Solana TVL reached $1.92B on Wednesday, over 500% in appreciation since Oct. 2023. Solana-based DeFi protocols have been netting double-digit increases in TVL while garnering popularity thanks to successful airdrop campaigns.
SOL Peaks Next to Fear & Greed
The surge in SOL’s price coincides with a notable uptick in the Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which entered the “extreme greed” zone for the first time in over two years, surpassing 74 on Tuesday.
More specifically, the metric is at its highest level since November 2021, when Bitcoin peaked at $69,000. The spike also follows Bitcoin’s recent milestone of surpassing $50,000 for the first time since December 2021 and subsequently exploding above $51K today.
However, not all analysts and market observers share the same bullish sentiment, mainly because long-term investors are taking profits, and looming liquidations could push selling pressure even higher.
BNB Struggling to Take Off
While major coins and tokens seemingly take off, BNB has had difficulty gaining traction. The main reason here is the ongoing regulatory issues surrounding Binance.
That, and the fact that Changpeng Zhao — currently out on a $175 million bond — is residing in the US under regulatory scrutiny and legal proceedings, contributes to the uncertainty surrounding BNB’s future trajectory.
Zhao’s sentencing date has been postponed to April 30.
