SOL drops to $95 as Bitcoin, gold and silver fall: What’s next?

Important points:

• Layoffs in the tech sector and concerns about artificial intelligence profits hit the market, sending SOL to a 2026 low.

• Despite the challenging environment, Solana outperformed its competitors with an 81% jump in network rates, securing its position as deputy leader.

Solana’s native token, SOL (SOL), fell to $100.30 on Saturday, hitting its lowest level since April 2025. While the 18% price correction over 30 days surprised traders, the move largely mirrored the broader altcoin market cap trend. A 26% plunge in silver prices on Friday had crypto traders bracing for further declines.

Although SOL was able to regain the $102 level on Saturday, sentiment remained subdued after a leveraged bullish position of $165 million was forced to liquidate. Sentiment worsened after Amazon (AMZN US) announced Wednesday that it would cut 16,000 white-collar jobs, amid concerns about escalating tensions in Iran and an economic downturn.

Investors became more risk averse after learning that 45% of Microsoft’s (MSFT US) Azure cloud computing backlog is OpenAI. Further tensions were caused by a report in the Wall Street Journal that said Nvidia (NVDA US) would no longer invest $100 billion in OpenAI. According to The Information, the ChatGPT maker is expected to face a net loss of $14 billion in 2026.

Despite the challenging socio-political environment, Solana’s on-chain activity outperformed its competitors and solidified its runner-up position in network fees and total value locked (TVL). Healthy on-chain metrics bring dual benefits to native tokens. It increases staking returns and encourages long-term holding while creating constant demand for data processing fees.

Solana’s network prices rose 81% above the trend over the past 30 days, according to Nansen data. Furthermore, active addresses increased by 62% and transactions jumped to 2.29 billion. By comparison, the number of transactions in the Ethereum ecosystem, including layer 2 solutions, reached a total of 623 million transactions, while Ethereum base layer fees increased by only 11%. Solana continued to be the clear leader in decentralized application (DApp) activity.

Related: Active Solana responds to 115% spike as 4 out of 10 merchants earn Bitcoin on monthly charts

Demand for leveraged bullish positions in SOL disappeared as traders sought safety in cash and short-term Treasuries. Multi-billion dollar technology companies such as Unity (US), AppLovin (APP US), Figma, and HubSpot (HUB US) faced price declines of more than 30% in 30 days. Gold, usually considered a safe-haven asset, has fallen 13% from its all-time high of $5,600 on Thursday.

The annualized funding rate on SOL Perpetual Futures has plummeted to -17%, meaning short sellers are paying to maintain their positions. This condition is unusual, rarely lasts long, and indicates a severe lack of leverage on the part of the bull. The move coincided with a political controversy over U.S. government funding.

The U.S. Senate on Friday approved a funding package, along with a two-week stopgap measure, to give the government more time to resolve a government funding dispute over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, following Democratic criticism of immigration enforcement. The U.S. House of Representatives is required to vote on the final version on Monday.

The Solana spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) recorded net outflows of $11 million on Friday, according to Coinglass. Meanwhile, publicly traded companies that use SOL as a corporate reserve strategy are under pressure. Shares of Forward Industries (FWDI US), Upexi (UPXI US), and Sharps Technology (STSS US) traded more than 20% below their respective net asset values.

SOL’s path to regaining bullish momentum relies heavily on renewed confidence in global economic growth and reduced sociopolitical risks, which may not materialize in the short term.