Solana’s SOL token has rallied about 10% over the past five days, trading at a three‑week high as broader risk appetite improves following news of a ceasefire extension between the United States and Iran. Despite the price strength, SOL remains a relative laggard in 2026, with the token underperforming the wider crypto market year-to-date.

Derivative markets point to renewed interest in SOL. Aggregate SOL futures open interest rose to about $4.2 billion on Friday, up from roughly $3.5 billion at the start of the week. While higher open interest signals growing participation, the perpetual funding rate has hovered around 3% annually, suggesting that buyers are not yet fully convinced and that leverage demand remains moderate. In a neutral setting, funding rates typically sit higher—roughly 5% to 10% annually—so the current reading implies cautious optimism rather than robust bullish conviction.

As Solana’s price action unfolds, on-chain activity presents a mixed picture. Solana continues to lead in decentralized exchange (DEX) volume and total value locked (TVL), underscoring its ongoing utility and network robustness. Yet Solana’s DApp revenue has softened in recent months, currently averaging around $16 million per week. By comparison, Ethereum’s DApp revenue has hovered around $10 million weekly, with BNB Chain at roughly $4 million, suggesting broader cooling in on-chain monetization across major ecosystems even as the Solana ecosystem remains an outsize DEX and TVL actor.

Key takeaways

• Solana remains dominant in DEX volume and TVL, even as SOL underperforms the broader crypto market in 2026.

• SOL futures open interest rose to about $4.2 billion, indicating expanding participation, while the 3% annualized funding rate signals cautious conviction from bulls.

• On-chain revenue trends show Solana’s DApp ecosystem still active but trending lower, with weekly DApp revenue near $16 million, versus higher activity on other chains.

• A wave of memecoin activity contributed to demand for SOL futures, echoing a pattern seen in prior bullish cycles and potentially foreshadowing a renewed price push.

• Analysts note that if memecoin enthusiasm persists and hedging pressure eases, SOL could revisit upside targets toward the $100 level, though macro catalysts and funding dynamics will shape the path there.

Solana’s market position amid price discord

Despite SOL’s 2026 price gap relative to some peers, Solana’s core strengths remain intact. The network continues to attract substantial DEX activity and holds a commanding share of TVL, reinforcing its role as a leading layer-1 for on-chain trading and liquidity provisioning. This structural advantage matters for traders and builders who rely on Solana’s low-latency design and ambitious wallet integration to power a broad spectrum of DeFi and Web3 apps.

Nevertheless, the broader price action tells a different story. SOL has lagged the wider market this year, suggesting that speculative drivers have cooled and that upside risk hinges on fresh catalysts beyond the continuation of positive on-chain fundamentals. For investors, the divergence between network dominance and price performance underscores a nuanced risk-reward dynamic: the chain’s intrinsic activity remains robust, but market enthusiasm requires new leverage‑driving momentum.

Derivatives backdrop: liquidity, leverage, and what to watch

The jump in open interest to $4.2 billion indicates growing participation from both institutional and retail traders interested in SOL’s volatility and spread efficiency. However, the persistent 3% annualized funding rate points to a market that is not fully pricing in a strong directional move. In calmer funding environments, sustained positive funding rates reflect ongoing demand for long positions; a reversion toward higher rates could accompany a renewed push higher in SOL, while a drop or negative rate would signal mounting short interest and potential downside pressure.

Traders will want to monitor whether the funding dynamic shifts as macro headlines evolve. A shift toward higher funding rates could accompany a more confident bull case, whereas persistent lower rates might imply a tighter range or consolidation phase. In this sense, perpetual futures markets offer a live read on market sentiment, even as they do not guarantee a specific price path.

Memecoin momentum and the DApp revenue narrative

Beyond the technical and macro layers, meme-driven demand has a notable footprint on SOL sentiment. A cluster of memecoins surged 40% or more over a short window, contributing to higher futures activity and capturing speculative interest around Solana. This pattern echoes earlier cycles where Solana benefited from surging user activity and social hype linked to memecoins, including iterations tied to high-profile tokens. While memecoins can catalyze short-term gains, they also introduce volatility that traders must manage carefully.

At the same time, Solana’s ongoing commitments—robust validator security, a smooth user experience through Web3 wallets, and continued DEX leadership—provide a foundational tailwind for sustained activity. The ecosystem’s ability to translate on-chain traffic into real-use cases will be critical if momentum from memecoins wanes and investors seek more durable value drivers.

Where next for SOL? Risks, rewards, and the watchpoints

The potential for a renewed move toward the $100 level exists in a confluence of favorable conditions: easing geopolitical risk reducing macro risk aversion, a continued uptick in memecoin-driven demand, and a pickup in leveraged exposure if funding signals shift higher. Yet several caveats remain. The broader crypto market’s appetite for DApps and on-chain revenue remains a key variable; if user activity cools further or if competing ecosystems regain traction, SOL’s upside could be constrained despite favorable derivatives signals.

What to watch next includes the trajectory of SOL’s funding rate and open interest, any shifts in DApp monetization trends, and how memecoin liquidity evolves in the near term. Macro headlines—ranging from commodity price shifts to regulatory developments—could also tilt momentum in surprising ways, given Solana’s sensitivity to risk sentiment and liquidity conditions.

As investors weigh the signals, the path to a meaningful upside will likely hinge on a combination of renewed DEX and TVL strength, a sustained pickup in on-chain activity, and a favorable macro backdrop that encourages broader leverage in SOL futures. Until then, volatility remains a defining feature of SOL’s trading narrative.

Readers should monitor how open interest evolves and whether the funding rate firms up or ebbs with changing sentiment, as these reads often precede more tangible price moves. The next few weeks will be telling for whether Solana can reconcile its network momentum with a fresh cycle of price appreciation.

A cross-chain bridge holding nearly a fifth of a restaked ether token’s circulating supply just got drained, and the fallout is moving through DeFi faster than Kelp DAO can pause contracts.

An attacker drained 116,500 rsETH (restaked ether) from Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-powered bridge at 17:35 UTC on Saturday, worth roughly $292 million at current prices and representing about 18% of rsETH’s 630,000 token circulating supply tracked by CoinGecko.

LayerZero is a cross-chain messaging layer, or the infrastructure that lets different blockchains send verified instructions to each other. Kelp DAO is a liquid restaking protocol, which takes user-deposited ETH, routes it through EigenLayer to earn additional yield on top of standard Ethereum staking rewards, and issues rsETH as a tradeable receipt.

The bridge that was drained held the rsETH reserve backing wrapped versions of the token deployed on more than 20 other blockchains.

The attacker tricked LayerZero’s cross-chain messaging layer into believing a valid instruction had arrived from another network, which triggered Kelp’s bridge to release 116,500 rsETH to an attacker-controlled address.

Kelp’s emergency pauser multisig froze the protocol’s core contracts 46 minutes after the successful drain, at 18:21 UTC. Two follow-up attempts at 18:26 UTC and 18:28 UTC both reverted, each carrying the same LayerZero packet attempting another 40,000 rsETH drain worth roughly $100 million.

rsETH is deployed across more than 20 networks including Base, Arbitrum, Linea, Blast, Mantle and Scroll, with LayerZero’s OFT standard handling the cross-chain movement.

The rsETH held in the bridge was the reserve backing wrapped versions on every layer 2 blockchain, or networks that run atop Ethereum.

With that reserve drained, holders on non-Ethereum deployments now face the question of whether their tokens have anything underneath them, which creates a feedback loop where panic redemptions on L2s pressure the unaffected Ethereum supply, potentially forcing Kelp to unwind restaking positions to honor withdrawals.

The contagion list is long and still growing.

Aave froze rsETH markets on V3 and V4 within hours, with founder Stani Kulechov affirming the exploit was external and Aave’s contracts were not compromised. SparkLend and Fluid froze their rsETH markets.

AAVE fell about 10% as the market priced potential bad debt.

Kelp, a product under the KernelDAO umbrella, acknowledged the incident in its first public X post at 20:10 UTC, nearly three hours after the drain. The protocol said it was investigating with LayerZero, Unichain, its auditors and outside security specialists. It has not disclosed how the exploit bypassed the bridge’s validation logic.

Whether rsETH holds peg through the weekend depends on how much of the cross-chain float tries to redeem into ETH on Ethereum and whether Kelp can recover any portion of the stolen funds before the Tornado Cash trail goes cold.

The hack lands in an unusually hostile stretch for DeFi. Solana-based perpetuals protocol Drift was drained of about $285 million on April 1 in an attack later linked to North Korea-affiliated actors, and at least a dozen smaller protocols have been exploited in the weeks since, including CoW Swap, Zerion, Rhea Finance and Silo Finance.

Kelp’s $292 million loss is now the largest DeFi exploit of 2026, overtaking Drift by a few million dollars.

The Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty, the relative challenge of adding new blocks to the BTC blockchain, fell on Saturday, amid public mining companies selling record amounts of BTC to cover operating expenses.

The Bitcoin mining difficulty fell to about 135.5 T, a modest decrease of about 1.1% over the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinWarz. Mining difficulty is also projected to increase in the next adjustment period. CoinWarz said:

“The next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is estimated to take place on May 01, 2026, 01:24:54 PM UTC, increasing the Bitcoin mining difficulty from 135.59 T to 137.43 T, which will take place in 1,865 blocks, about 12 days, 18 hours, and 41 minutes from now.”

Bitcoin miners have faced mounting challenges over the past year, as reduced block rewards, rising energy prices, a crypto bear market and geopolitical shocks create economic headwinds for miners. 

Related: Solo Bitcoin miner bags $210K Bitcoin block reward

Public mining companies sell record amounts of BTC

Publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies sold more BTC in Q1 2026 than all four quarters of 2025 combined, according to TheEnergyMag.

Mining companies MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific and Bitdeer, sold more than 32,000 BTC in total during Q1 2026, TheEnergyMag said.

The combined sales surpassed the 20,000 BTC sold in Q2 2022, the same quarter as the collapse of the Terra-Luna ecosystem, which plunged crypto into an extended bear market.

Miners periodically sell their BTC to cover operating expenses, which are denominated in fiat currency.

However, as the cost of mining a single BTC increases past spot market prices, many BTC mining companies are now treading water.

Up to 20% of Bitcoin miners are unprofitable under current economic conditions, according to asset manager CoinShares’ Q1 2026 mining report.

“Q4 2025 marked the most challenging quarter for Bitcoin miners since the April 2024 halving,” the CoinShares report said.

The authors cited the “sharp” BTC correction in October 2025, which slashed BTC’s price from a high of about $125,000 to about $86,000 by December 2025, and the rising computational difficulty of adding blocks as headwinds for the mining industry.

Magazine: 7 reasons why Bitcoin mining is a terrible business idea