Solana’s network is painting a contradictory picture: record daily active returning users clash with a sharp price drawdown and deteriorating on-chain fundamentals. While the SOL token lost roughly 17% in a week to trade near $65, data shows more than 1.7 million users are returning each day – the highest since February – fueled by growing confidence in the ecosystem.
According to on-chain analyst Zensei, Solana’s returning user metric has surged, indicating that existing participants are engaging more deeply with decentralized applications. Zensei also highlighted Solana’s dominance over Ethereum in perpetuals volume ($19 billion vs. $10.1 billion) and DEX aggregator volume ($10.2 billion vs. $4.8 billion) over the past week, suggesting the network could lead the next wave of decentralized finance.
However, a separate post-mortem reveals stress beneath the surface. DeFi total value locked (TVL) on Solana stood near $4.92 billion, but attributed data suggests a 9.55% weekly and 15% monthly decline, implying capital flight beyond token depreciation. Glassnode-derived figures pointed to long-term holders reducing net accumulation by around 28% in under a week, while Solana’s DEX market share slipped to 22.6%, below its 60-day average. Active addresses have fallen from 5.5 million in February to about 2.91 million, a structural decline predating the sell-off.
Market sentiment remains extremely fearful, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index at 8. For traders, stabilization in TVL, a recovery in DEX share, and a reversal of the active-address downtrend will be key signs that the damage is temporary rather than structural.
