Thread 2 +
In February 2025, a flight to safe assets in crypto was triggered, visible in the capital flow data. A report from Binance Research (via Cointelegraph) notes that investors withdrew nearly USD 485 million in Solana over 30 days, directing it mainly to Ethereum ($161M), Arbitrum ($138M), and BNB Chain ($102M). This massive outflow coincided with several negative events: on February 21, the exchange Bybit suffered a historic hack of USD 1.4 billion, and in Solana, a rug pull of the memecoin 'Libra' (backed by Javier Milei) diverted USD 107M in liquidity and sank its price by 94% in hours. These events accelerated risk aversion and the hunger for stablecoins, putting downward pressure on the price of SOL.
Prior to this downturn, Solana had shown strength. At the beginning of 2025, softer-than-expected U.S. inflation rekindled demand for risky assets. Thus, Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 and Ethereum hovered around $3,600, while Solana rose between $190 and $218 in January. These early increases coincided with high liquidity and accumulation by long-term holders. However, much of that momentum was reversed as expectations of high rates solidified and after the aforementioned incidents.
Comparison with other cryptocurrencies
In terms of scale, Solana remains far below Bitcoin and Ethereum. Its market capitalization hovers around USD 70 billion in 2025, compared to ~USD 1.69 trillion for Bitcoin and ~USD 202 billion for Ethereum. This smaller size implies greater growth potential but also higher relative volatility: in fact, SOL has shown historical volatility (~80% realized in 3 months) almost double that of Bitcoin. In absolute terms, in January 2025 Bitcoin traded near $103,000 and Ethereum at $3,600, while Solana fluctuated between $190 and $218.
During the first quarter, Ethereum suffered the most: it reported declines close to 50% during that period, far exceeding the corrections of SOL and BTC. For its part, Solana was less affected and even managed to recover ground with the rally in April. In general, Solana tends to move in sync with the major cryptos (annual correlation ~+0.7 with Bitcoin/Ethereum) but frequently registers more pronounced increases in bullish cycles, making it a high-risk altcoin with high potential.
