Solana's year-long slide traced back to the memecoin engine cutting out

The chart that never made a new high

Of the big caps, Solana is the one that got left behind. Per the NewsBTC writeup, $SOL peaked at $293 in January and was changing hands near $121.50 in late December, while Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and BNB all managed fresh all-time highs at some point during the year.

The interesting part is the timing. The analysis argues this was not simply a market-wide risk-off event landing in October: selling volume was already climbing well before that, which reads like large holders pre-positioning for the exit rather than reacting to one.

• 💀Retail-sized wallets stayed busy all year — the crowd never left, the size did.
• 💀Mid-sized and institutional wallet activity trended down for months.
• 💀Demand that once came from $PNUT and $TRUMP faded as Solana memecoins trended lower.

What it means for degens

Solana spent 2024 and early 2025 with its network activity welded to memecoin speculation, which is fantastic on the way up and a very short rope on the way down. When launchpad flow cools, the chain loses fee revenue, DEX volume and the story all at once — which is roughly what the wallet data describes.