Solana Is Down 21% in a Month, the Most of the Four Biggest Coins. Is $90 the Floor?
A historic crypto exchange hack turned Solana's gradual slide into a sharp plunge, and now traders are watching one critical price level to determine whether SOL finds its footing or faces a steeper fall toward territory not seen since summer.
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The Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) price has fallen 19.7% over the last 30 days, making it the weakest performer among the four major cryptocurrencies—Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP—since early October. SOL is trading at $97 after a slight 3.3% rebound in 24 hours.
Over this 30-day period, SOL’s highest close was $121 on October 5, while it hit an intraday low of $91 on November 2. Despite the recent bounce, SOL is still 67% below its all-time high of $293, set on January 19, 2025.
So, is the $90 level support buyers can hold, or just a temporary pause before prices dip further?
The Binance Hack Turned Solana’s Slow Slide Into a Sharp Drop
Solana’s 30-day decline happened in two phases, with the second phase tied to a specific event. Initially, the coin fell from $121 to $102 by October 28. During this time, the VIX, a measure of expected stock market volatility, rose from 15.5 to 20.8, signaling growing market nervousness.
The second phase started after a significant hack at Binance, the largest crypto exchange. On October 29, trading was halted as hackers targeted wallets, resulting in the largest crypto hack in history. Investigations linked the attack to a North Korean hacking group, and Binance pledged to cover all losses.
SOL opened at $102 on October 29, dropped to a low of $95, and closed just above that mark. The hack triggered a wave of liquidations in the crypto market. A liquidation occurs when an exchange automatically closes a leveraged trade because the collateral no longer covers the loss, causing a ripple effect of forced selling that pushes prices down.
Selling pressure also extended to funds. Bitcoin ETFs saw significant outflows as both the midterm elections and the hack weighed on market sentiment. Solana funds offered no relief, as U.S.-listed Solana ETFs showed zero net flows on November 3 and held $1.38 billion in net assets.
Solana Is the Only Major Coin Still Below Its 20-Day Average
SOL’s bounce to $97 has taken it past the November 2 intraday high of $96. However, it still lags behind its 20-day simple moving average of $101 (4% higher) and its 50-day average of $109 (12% higher). Trading below both averages means most recent buyers paid more than SOL’s current price.
On a positive note for long-term investors, SOL remains above its 200-day moving average of $89 (8.3% lower), which falls just beneath the $91 low.
However, trading volume suggests weak support for a bottom. The November 2 test of $91 drew only about 953,000 in daily volume. The heaviest session of the slide, on October 30, had around 1.26 million in volume, while during SOL’s crash in February, volume exceeded 6.2 million on both February 5 and 6. Typically, selloffs conclude with a surge of panic selling, and that hasn’t occurred here yet.
Why Solana Declined More Than Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP
From October 5 to November 4, SOL fell 19.7%, while Bitcoin dropped only 6%, Ethereum fell 10.1%, and XRP fell 12.5%. This trend continued over the past week, with SOL dropping by 4.4%, compared to Bitcoin’s slight dip of 0.5%, XRP’s 0.1% increase, and Ethereum’s gain of 3.8%.
The recent rebound demonstrates the same pattern. Ethereum has risen 6% in the last 24 hours, and Bitcoin has gained 3.7%, both outpacing SOL’s 3.3% recovery. Bitcoin stands at $80,360, slightly above its 20-day average of $80,317; Ethereum trades at $2,433, above its average of $2,351; and XRP trades at $1.32, above its average of $1.30.
The underlying reason likely stems from beta, a metric that indicates how much a cryptocurrency tends to amplify market movements. SOL surged the most on the way up, gaining 33.5% over 90 days, compared to 28.1% for Ethereum, 27.7% for XRP, and 25.4% for Bitcoin. Cryptos that climb rapidly often see sharper declines when faced with market shocks, and SOL’s numbers for the past month reflect this trend.
Solana Has Support at $89, $84 and $77 if the $91 Low Breaks
If SOL breaks below the $91 low, earlier lows where buyers stepped in may offer support. The first is the 200-day average at $89 (8.3% lower), followed by the $88 low from August 22 (9.4% lower) and the $84 low from August 20 (13.4% lower). Further down, buyers stepped in at $77 on August 19 (21% lower), $72 on July 1 (25.5% lower), and $60 on June 6 (38% lower).
Even the recent bounce on November 4 could be partly due to short covering. Short sellers, who profit from falling prices, may buy back SOL to close their positions, and some exchanges force them to close when prices rise. These purchases stop once positions are closed, so a short-covering rally could fade unless new buyers step in.
Can the Solana Price Sustain $91 as a Support Level?
Not yet. SOL has tested the $91 level only once, on November 2. Support levels tend to become significant only after repeated testing and strong buying pressure. The price rebound will also rely on keeping the fallout from the Binance incident contained and encouraging fresh capital to flow into Solana ETFs.
If you hold SOL, watch $91 and $101. A daily close below $91 could turn the November 2 low into a failed floor and put the $89 200-day average in play. A daily close above $101 could put SOL back over its 20-day average and suggest fresh buyers have returned.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst and the editor of 24/7 Wall St.'s Crypto Desk, where he covers Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, Solana and the altcoins investors search for most. His work focuses on price levels, spot ETF flows, on-chain data and the regulatory decisions that move crypto markets, written so a first-time buyer and a seasoned trader can both use it.
Sam has written about crypto professionally since 2019 and has published more than 2,000 articles. Before joining 24/7 Wall St., he wrote for crypto media outlets and Web3 companies and ghostwrote for crypto founders and token launches. His analysis is syndicated on Yahoo Finance, MSN and AOL and has been cited by other crypto news sites. He also founded MacLabs Marketing, a content and personal branding agency for crypto founders and executives.
When he isn't reading charts, Sam is usually at the gym or watching One Piece, a series he maintains has better tokenomics than most altcoins.
