SOL Slides to $95 Amid Broad‑Market Sell‑off in Crypto, Gold and Silver – What Comes Next?
February 1 2026
Solana’s native token (SOL) slipped beneath the $100 mark on Saturday, touching $100.30 – its lowest level since April 2025 – and briefly breached the $95 threshold before recovering to just above $102. The dip mirrors a wave of risk‑off sentiment that has hit the wider cryptocurrency market, as well as traditional safe‑haven assets such as gold and silver.
Below, we break down the drivers behind the sell‑off, examine Solana’s on‑chain fundamentals, and explore what the next few weeks could hold for the blockchain and its token.
Key Takeaways
- Price pressure: SOL fell 18 % over the past 30 days, hitting a 2026 low of $95‑$100, in line with a sharp contraction across altcoin market capitalisation.
- Macro backdrop: Tech‑sector layoffs, heightened AI‑related revenue worries and geopolitical tensions (Iran sanctions, US government funding debates) have intensified risk aversion.
- On‑chain resilience: Despite the price drop, Solana’s network fees surged 81 % month‑over‑month, active addresses rose 62 %, and total transactions reached 2.29 billion – outpacing Ethereum’s 623 million.
- Leverage melt‑down: Approximately $165 million of bullish leveraged positions on SOL were liquidated; the annualised funding rate on SOL perpetual futures fell to –17 %, indicating shorts are paying to stay in the market.
- Capital outflows: SOL‑focused ETFs registered $11 million of net withdrawals on Friday, while publicly listed firms that hold SOL as a corporate reserve saw their shares trade well below net‑asset values.
1. Market Conditions That Prompted the Slide
The descent of SOL cannot be isolated from the broader “risk‑off” environment that has swept both crypto and traditional markets.
- Tech‑sector headwinds: Amazon announced the elimination of roughly 16 000 white‑collar positions, a move that reverberated across the sector and sparked concerns about slowing growth for tech‑heavy portfolios.
- AI revenue uncertainty: Analysts highlighted that OpenAI now accounts for close to half of Microsoft’s Azure backlog. Coupled with a Wall Street Journal report that Nvidia is pulling back a planned $100 billion investment in OpenAI, the narrative around AI profitability has shifted from exuberance to caution.
- Geopolitical strains: New US Treasury sanctions targeting Iranian‑linked crypto exchanges added a layer of regulatory risk. Meanwhile, an ongoing debate over US government funding – with the Senate passing a stop‑gap bill and the House yet to act – has raised further uncertainty.
These factors have collectively nudged investors toward cash and short‑duration government bonds, leaving speculative assets like SOL vulnerable to price corrections.
2. How Solana’s Fundamentals Stack Up
While the token’s market price has faltered, Solana’s underlying network activity tells a more nuanced story.
- Fee dynamics: Nansen data shows a dramatic 81 % rise in 30‑day median network fees, positioning Solana as the second‑largest blockchain by fee volume, ahead of many Layer‑2 solutions.
- User growth: Active on‑chain addresses expanded by 62 % over the same period, indicating a growing base of participants who are either transacting, staking or developing on the platform.
- Transaction volume: The chain processed roughly 2.29 billion transactions in the last month, a figure that dwarfs Ethereum’s combined layer‑1 and layer‑2 activity (≈623 million). Ethereum’s base‑layer fees, by contrast, grew a modest 11 %.
These metrics boost staking returns and fuel sustained demand for SOL as a fee‑paying token, providing a counterweight to price volatility.
3. Leveraged Positions and Futures Funding
The collapse of bullish leverage on SOL was swift. Approximately $165 million of long positions were forced into liquidation as traders fled to safer assets. This pressure is reflected in the perpetual futures market, where the annualised funding rate turned sharply negative to –17 %. In practice, this means short sellers are compensated to maintain their positions, a rare occurrence that underscores the current lack of appetite for long exposure.
4. Institutional and Corporate Exposure
- ETF outflows: Data from CoinGlass indicates that SOL‑linked spot ETFs experienced $11 million of net withdrawals on Friday, suggesting that institutional investors are also trimming exposure.
- Corporate reserves: Companies that have disclosed SOL holdings as part of their treasury strategy—in particular Forward Industries, Upexi and Sharps Technology—have seen their stock prices dip 20 % or more below their net‑asset values, reflecting the broader sell‑off in crypto‑linked assets.
5. Outlook – What Needs to Change?
For SOL to rebound, two macro‑level conditions appear essential:
- Stabilised macro‑economic sentiment: A clear signal that the tech sector, especially AI‑centric revenue streams, is on a sustainable growth trajectory would restore risk appetite.
- Reduced geopolitical friction: A de‑escalation of US‑Iran tensions and a resolution to the US federal funding stalemate would mitigate the regulatory and fiscal uncertainty that currently depresses investor confidence.
On the technical side, Solana’s robust on‑chain metrics could attract a new wave of developers and users, especially if the ecosystem continues to outpace Ethereum in transaction throughput and fee generation. However, price recovery is unlikely to be driven solely by network fundamentals; it will require a broader shift in market sentiment.
Bottom Line
SOL’s recent dip to the mid‑$90s is emblematic of a larger risk‑off climate that has impacted not only cryptocurrencies but also traditional safe‑havens such as gold and silver. While the token’s price has suffered, Solana’s blockchain continues to showcase strong activity—higher fees, booming address counts and outsized transaction volumes—positioning it as a resilient layer‑1 platform.
Investors should monitor macroeconomic indicators (tech‑sector hiring, AI investment trends, geopolitical developments) alongside on‑chain data to gauge whether the current downturn is a temporary correction or a more protracted challenge for Solana’s price trajectory.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/sol-drops-to-95-as-bitcoin-ai-stocks-and-gold-sell-off-will-traders-buy-the-dip?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
