Solana (SOL) saw a period of relative calm over the weekend following an impressive 9.5% surge over the past week. Notably, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap previously reached an all-time high of $263.80 in November 2024 before pulling back to $177 in December. However, the start of 2025 has brought renewed momentum, with SOL rebounding strongly and sparking fresh optimism among investors. This resurgence has led analysts to speculate that Solana may be on the cusp of substantial price growth, with some predicting it could soon see a major breakout. On Saturday, Popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez added fuel to the excitement by pointing out a potential cup-and-handle pattern forming on Solana’s charts. “There’s a chance Solana $SOL is forming a cup-and-handle pattern, and it will reach $4,000” the pundit tweeted. Notably, the cup-and-handle formation is highly regarded in technical analysis due to its reliability. According to renowned chart pattern expert Thomas Bulkowski, cup-and-handle patterns rank third in terms of reliability, with a completion rate of 61%. This indicates that when a price breakout occurs above the resistance level of the handle, it often leads to significant gains. Elsewhere analyst Andrew Griffiths, with a following of over 24,000 on X, shared a similar view, reinforcing that the cup-and-handle pattern has broken and that Solana is primed for a significant price increase. Griffiths predicts an immediate target of $375 before the cryptocurrency embarks on its larger bullish move. Solana’s bullish outlook is further reinforced by renowned macroeconomic investor Raoul Pal, who referred to the long-term Solana chart as “stupid bullish,” citing the Wyckoff re-accumulation pattern evident in the chart. Pal noted that this pattern currently reflects a phase of consolidation, with declining selling pressure, indicating the potential for a substantial bullish breakout. Beyond the technical indicators, factors such as a potential spot ETF approval and its underlying ecosystem continue to grow and gain traction. While Ethereum, the dominant blockchain for decentralized applications (dApps), has faced scalability and high transaction fees, Solana has been built with speed and efficiency in mind. Solana’s network can handle over 10,000 transactions per second, far surpassing Ethereum’s capacity, which can only process around 14 transactions per second. The high transaction throughput and minimal fees have made Solana an attractive platform for developers looking to build dApps without the limitations of slower, more expensive networks. Solana’s unique architecture, which avoids the need for sharding (splitting the network into multiple parts), ensures that all transactions are processed on a single global state machine, making the network faster and more efficient. Solana’s ability to support scalable, low-cost applications has also fueled the growth of an ecosystem of developers and projects migrating to the platform, which is a potential boon for the crypto asset’s price. At press time, SOL traded at $217, reflecting a 1.7% gain in the past 24 hours.
