'Ethereum Killer' Solana Plummets 12%, Max Keiser Says 'Rug Pull Has Begun'

Solana SOL/USD, often touted as an ‘Ethereum ETH/USD killer’, has seen its native token, SOL, slide by 12% over the past 24 hours, interrupting its end-of-year upswing.

What Happened: Following a high of $126.30 on Dec. 25, SOL has experienced a sharp decrease of 13% within seven days.

The previous price rally can be attributed to an airdrop craze triggered by the listing of the new JITO token on significant exchanges on Dec. 7, 2023, which swiftly achieved a market cap surpassing $300 million. This event was closely followed by the launch of the BONK BONK/USD meme coin on Dec. 14, 2023, which led to a complete sell-out of Solana’s Saga phone, as certain airdrops aimed at mobile device holders.

Amidst this, there was a notable uptick in transaction volume among Solana’s decentralized applications, standing resilient even as rival blockchains such as Arbitrum, zkSync, and BNB Chain faltered under increased December activity.

The decline in investor interest became evident post the airdrop euphoria with Jito JTO/USD, DogWifHat WIF/USD, and BONK notes facing dips of 40%, 41%, and 44% respectively.

When delving into Solana’s total value locked (TVL), a downward trend has been noted. The TVL, measured in SOL, hit a peak of 15.4 million SOL on December 19, 2023, but subsequently descended by 17%, landing at 12.8 million SOL on January 5, 2024. 

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Why It Matters: American broadcaster and filmmaker Max Keiser revisited an earlier statement on X, succinctly echoing his previous sentiment, stating, "The rug pull has begun, anon."

A pseudonymous analyst known as Pentoshi shared a perspective on SOL’s potential trajectory. "SOL update #1 Not sure we get as low as I have here, but do expect at some point to be able to bid in the $70’s. Looking forward to not just trading sol, but holding some ecosystem coins for the next year or so," Pentoshi remarked.

Price Action: At the time of writing, SOL was trading at $89 down 12.50% on Sunday, according to Benzinga Pro.

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