The meme coin mania pushed Solana to a new all-time high of $295.83 on January 19. Although SOL’s price has since declined by 22%, investors remain optimistic that it will reclaim this peak in February and surge past it.

In this analysis, BeInCrypto examines the likelihood of a rally back above $290 or an extension of its current downtrend.

Solana Faces Mixed Signals

The rumored launch of Solana futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) could propel SOL’s price higher in February. 

On January 22, a post briefly surfaced on CME’s website, suggesting that Solana futures could debut as early as February 10, pending regulatory approval. The news triggered a 3% uptick in SOL’s price before CME clarified that the post was made in error, stating that no official decision had been made regarding the launch of futures contracts for the asset.

Despite this clarification, market sentiment remains watchful. Given CME’s history of legitimizing institutional access to cryptocurrencies, any confirmation of Solana’s futures could be a major catalyst for price appreciation, potentially pushing SOL toward its all-time high.

However, this bullish projection could be invalidated by an impending token unlock. According to Tokenomist, Solana is set to release $489.2 million worth of coins in a linear unlock in February, which could exert downward pressure on the market by increasing available supply.

Token unlocks often create uncertainty and fear among investors. Therefore, SOL’s price could dip if the SOL influx is not met with a corresponding demand to absorb the coins.

SOL Price Prediction:  Will Coin Sink Below $200?

SOL trades at $231.53 at press time, shedding 9% of its value over the past week. Readings from its Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator highlight the waning demand for the altcoin.

On Tuesday, SOL’s MACD line (blue) crossed below its signal line (orange), confirming the bearish trend. When this indicator is set up this way, it indicates that selling activity exceeds accumulation among market participants, hinting at the possibility of an extended decline.

If this bearish trend strengthens, SOL’s price could drop below $200 to trade at $187.71 over the next few weeks.

However, a resurgence in demand, driven by another meme coin run or the launch of SOL futures contracts, would invalidate this bearish projection. In that scenario, SOL’s price could revisit its all-time high and rally beyond it. 

Robinhood is rolling out futures trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum in addition to traditional commodities like oil and gold. It teased this launch on social media, but the Chigaco Mercantile Exchange (CME) detailed its partnership with Robinhood.

The CME Group recently claimed that it has no interest in futures trading for Solana or XRP, so the partnership is unlikely to offer other cryptoassets soon.

Futures Trading on Robinhood

Robinhood, a popular trading app, is expanding into futures trading. The firm has significantly diversified its offerings in the last few months. Most recently, it joined Polymarket in offering elections betting and re-listed former assets in November.

In January, its CEO expressed interest in RWA tokenization, and it can now add futures trading to the list.

Robinhood first teased these futures trading services in a social media post, and the firm’s official website detailed a few more specifics. Shortly thereafter, the CME circulated its own press release, which revealed that these offerings came through a partnership.

“We are extremely pleased to offer some of our most popular futures contracts to the broad network of retail traders on Robinhood. Demand for futures has skyrocketed as a new generation of self-directed traders is seeking diversified investment opportunities,” said Julie Winkler, Chief Commercial Officer at CME Group.

So far, Robinhood isn’t offering futures trading for any cryptoassets other than Bitcoin or Ethereum. A week ago, statements from the CME clarified that the exchange has yet to make any decisions on offering futures contracts for Solana or XRP.

The company has offered Bitcoin futures for years, but it’s maintaining a conservative approach towards most altcoins.

Nonetheless, this is a significant development for Robinhood. The trading platform reported huge revenue gains in 2024, boasting a 114% increase in trading volume from the previous year.

By offering these futures trades, Robinhood can deepen its commitment to the growing crypto market while hedging its bets with more traditional commodities.

“Brand new revenue stream that the business has never had and should only deepen the relationships users have with the platform. I have never traded a futures contract before so my first time will be on Robinhood. Futures also requires you have margin so we could see an increase in margin balances as people enable futures,” wrote Amit, a popular tech and stock trading influencer on X (formerly Twitter).

Additionally, the firm was quite clear that these commodities futures would still benefit from the Web3 trading ethos. Low fees, round-the-clock trades, and other convenient features are typical in cryptocurrency exchanges but less so in TradFi.

Robinhood is seeking to cover its bases and ensure that this launch appeals to a broad consumer base.

Upcoming layer-1 blockchain Berachain’s pre-launch liquidity platform Boyco has officially gone live. The platform has already attracted an impressive $2.3 billion in “pre-deposits.”

Through Boyco, applications can now negotiate directly with liquidity providers.

Boyco App Kicks Off Berachain’s Mainnet Launch

Royco Protocol announced the launch of Boyco on X on January 28. Royco is a platform on Berachain that facilitates the creation of liquidity markets, allowing protocols to negotiate directly with liquidity providers to secure liquidity.

Boyco is a tailored implementation of Royco, specifically designed to support the mainnet launch of Berachain. After Boyco went live, several users complained about not being able to access the website.

“Boyco frontend lagging as hell, the FOMO is real,” wrote one user on X.

It appears that the high traffic brought the sites down.

“Yesterday evening, Boyco went live. We maxed out our servers, but even that wasn’t enough to sustain the sheer volume of traffic. Both sites became very, very slow. Since then, we’ve completely overhauled our backend, to be able to match the scale of demand,” Royco explained in a tweet. 

Moreover, the Boyco website showed that the Total Value Locked in Boyco alone is over $113 million. Once the predeposits are included, the figure rises to as high as $2.3 billion.

The supply of BERA, Berachain’s native token, on Boyco will represent 2% of the total supply.

“The community was quite surprised when the project allocated 2% of the total BERA supply to Boyco instead of the previously announced 1.5%,” said one user on X.

Boyco is designed to bridge the gap between the development of decentralized applications (DApps) and the eventual launch of their mainnet. Typically, users and investors have to wait until a blockchain’s mainnet goes live to begin interacting with its ecosystem.

However, with Boyco, applications can create liquidity markets ahead of time, providing early-stage users with an opportunity to deposit assets and generate interest. Nevertheless, another user complained that the network fee to predeposit on Boyco is ‘ridiculosly high.’

Separately, there is also much anticipation around the launch of the Berachain mainnet. Berachain is an EVM-identical layer-1 blockchain that uses a novel “proof-of-liquidity” consensus mechanism.

Rollup co-founder Andy posted on X that it could launch as early as next week.

“Berachain is launching imminently. I’ve heard early next week,” he wrote.

Berachain, with its $2.3 billion in TVL, ranks as the eighth largest chain by TVL. According to data from Dune Analytics, it has already surpassed chains like Sui, Avalanche, and Hyperliquid.