Solana soars 13% amid Robinhood staking launch and new Liquidity Layer

SOL, the native token of Solana, surged 13% in 24 hours following Robinhood Crypto’s announcement of a new staking product in Europe and marginfi’s introduction of Solana’s first Liquidity Layer.

At the time of writing, SOL is valued at $162.36, with a 24-hour trading volume of $4.25 billion, an increase of 80%. Currently ranked as the 5th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, SOL boasts a total market cap of $72.86 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

SOL 24-hour price chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

The recent surge in SOL’s price followed an announcement from Solana’s official X account regarding a new product by Robinhood Crypto. The digital asset trading platform is launching a Solana-staking product in Europe, accompanied by a bonus program for new customers.

“Robinhood Crypto customers can now stake their Solana holdings directly through the app, allowing them to earn rewards with the flexibility to unstake at any time,” the company stated.

Additionally, new customers can earn a 10% bonus on their net buys over their first 30 days on the platform, with bonuses paid out in USDC stablecoins.

Another potential factor for the price increase is a May 15 X announcement from marginfi, a decentralized portfolio margining protocol for trading on Solana.

Introducing Solana’s first Liquidity Layer

We’re excited to announce the evolution of marginfi: powering a radically new Layer for Performant DeFi

Here’s how we’re changing the game 👇 pic.twitter.com/I6rt0xD3wc

— marginfi ◼️ (@marginfi) May 15, 2024

Marginfi introduced Solana’s first Liquidity Layer, describing it as a new layer for performant DeFi. The platform offers three types of integrated, native yields: natural staking yield through LST, the highest-yielding lending dApp on Solana; native token yield through mrgnlend, the first integrated stableswap in crypto; and native stablecoin yield through YBX, marginfi’s audited LST-backed stablecoin.

You might also like: Solana meme coins surge despite crypto market decline

The latest surge in SOL comes as Franklin Templeton, a prominent asset management firm, acknowledged Solana’s potential to become the third-largest cryptocurrency. The firm highlighted Solana’s scalability and low transaction fees, which have made it popular for meme tokens like Catwifhat, BONK, and WIF, all among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market valuation.

Despite concerns over network outages, Solana officially surpassed Ethereum in maximum extractable value (MEV) for the first time on May 12. The achievement reinforced Solana’s reputation as an ‘Ethereum killer,’ outperforming its competitor in decentralized exchange volumes at various points this year.

Meanwhile, the broader crypto market has also seen significant gains, rising 5.73% in the last day to reach a total market capitalization of $2.39 trillion. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $66,100, up 6.6% in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum (ETH) has increased by 3.7%, now trading at $3,017 per coin.

Read more: Solana to surpass all-time high despite activity decline, expert predicts

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