One billion dollars fled in a single week, daily active users dropped by nearly 60%, Solana faces the retreat of MEME and inflation uncertainties

Author: Frank, PANews

In a single week, $1 billion in staked funds has fled, and daily active users have plummeted by nearly 60%—the Solana ecosystem is undergoing its most severe test in the past six months. With platforms like Pump.fun dumping over $600 million in tokens and major validators losing confidence in staking due to the SIMD proposal, combined with the vacuum left by the retreat of the MEME craze, the SOL token has plunged 57% in 40 days, leading the mainstream coins.

As on-chain data anomalies intersect with a market sell-off, how will this public chain giant, once seen as the "Ethereum killer," navigate survival amid the dual strangulation of ecological reconstruction and capital flight?

Accelerated Staking Withdrawal: $1 Billion in Funds Flee in a Single Week

In the past week, the amount of staked tokens on the Solana chain decreased by 5.97 million, with a reduction of 3.61 million over the past month. This indicates that many large stakers have begun withdrawing SOL funds to avoid the risk of decline. The weekly decline rate is approximately 1.5%, with about $1 billion in staked funds reduced.

From the changes in the Solana network, on February 23, there was a drastic change in the Solana network, with daily active users and new wallet numbers dropping by about 90% on that day before returning to normal levels. This sharp fluctuation was likely caused by a collective failure or shutdown of certain trading bots on the chain, which also exposed the issue of an excessively high proportion of bots in the Solana network.

As of February 28, data shows that the current level of active users has also significantly decreased from the peak in October last year. On October 22, the number of daily active addresses reached a high of 8.78 million, while the data on February 27 dropped to 3.71 million, a decline of about 58%.

5 Major Whales Concentrated Selling: $317 Million in Tokens Impacting the Market

Recently, several large SOL holders have chosen to sell tokens or unstake. According to incomplete statistics based on information exposed on social media by PANews, five whales sold approximately 2.09 million SOL in a short period, valued at about $317 million, with an average selling price of around $151.

Among them, the address AMekyY73RJBd4urgZ2HvWV8yFzvk4nRsGmahuJcWiQri unstaked a total of 236,000 SOL, and so far has only sold 60,000; it remains uncertain whether the remaining tokens will continue to be sold in the near future.

In addition, Pump.fun has also been a major force in selling on-chain. As of February 28, Pump.fun has sold approximately 3.02 million SOL tokens, cashing out a total of about $610 million. In the past month, Pump.fun sold a total of 440,000 SOL, valued at about $7.839 million. This has further exacerbated the already panicked market.

However, with the decline in MEME popularity, various metrics for Pump have also been continuously declining. On February 23, the number of active users on Pump.fun dropped to a low of 41,000, recovering to around 180,000 the next day. Overall data has decreased by more than half in the past month.

Cryptocurrency brokerage service FalconX has also been an important channel for large holders to flee. According to PANews statistics, in February, the amount of SOL tokens transferred from FalconX to Binance reached 386,700, valued at about $6.6 million. However, further research reveals that large holders seem to have started fleeing as early as January, with the amount of SOL transferred from FalconX to Binance in January reaching 1.37 million, valued at $315 million, with an average transfer price of about $229. This figure is significantly higher than in other months.

Of course, while some are leaving, others are rushing in. On February 27 and 28, a large holder with the address EhuKBFXyUYgwc4nUMJMQHjY4A7w5nTTrMtY6z4TtZSFK bought 83,000 SOL tokens, spending a total of $10.88 million, with an average entry price of about $134.

SIMD Proposal Impact: Shrinking Staking Rewards Trigger Validator Panic

Overall, however, the incoming funds are still in the minority, with large sellers dominating. The main reasons for this, in addition to the changes in the overall macro environment causing fluctuations in the financial market, also include uncertainties within the Solana ecosystem itself. The recently launched SIMD-0228 proposal aims to modify the issuance curve of SOL tokens, reducing the inflation rate by lowering staking rewards. Therefore, for many large validator nodes, this has become an important factor of uncertainty in the short term.

Under internal and external pressures, both the data of the Solana ecosystem and the market price of the token are facing dual pressure. As of the afternoon of February 28, the price of SOL has dropped 57% over the past 40 days, becoming the mainstream token with the largest decline recently.

Currently, with no new narrative emerging to lead the industry and the MEME sector gradually cooling down, how Solana can maintain on-chain activity may become the biggest challenge.