Of the 11 cryptocurrency CFDs offered within the Alpari universe, there has been one runaway leader for 2023: Solana.

Solana has already skyrocketed by 1040% so far in 2023, despite seeing a pullback at the time of writing.

Today’s pullback is only to be expected after such eye-watering gains so far this year.Even then, Solana’s 14-day relative strength index (RSI) remains well above the 70 mark and still very much within “overbought” territory.

This suggests there could be more room for a technical pullback.

However, once this pullback is complete and the froth is cleared, that could form a stronger base for Solana bulls to restore prices back higher.
 Why did Solana soar in 2023?There are multiple reasons floating about for Solana’s stunning fortunes this year.But tracking the price charts …

Most of Solana’s 2023 gains came as markets sought to detach this crypto from its links with disgraced FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried a.k.a. “SBF”.

For context, in the first 9 months of 2023, Solana’s year-to-date gains “merely” stood at 113.6%.Then, when SBF’s trial officially began on October 2nd, 2023, Solana skyrocketed.A month later, on November 2nd, 2023, SBF was convicted of all seven charges of fraud and conspiracy brought against him.And Solana’s prices then took off, even culminating with a year-to-date gain of some 1,200% prior to the ongoing pullback.
 What’s the link between SBF and Solana?Prior to the implosion of his FTX exchange, SBF had long championed the Solana blockchain for its fast speeds and low fees.

Hence, traders and investors had previously seen Solana, and its SOL token, as a proxy to betting on SBF in his heyday.

Then, amid the crypto winter of 2022, Solana fell hard and lost 94.1% of its value last year.These days, Solana’s remarkable turnaround in 2023 is deemed as a reversal of fortunes for this crypto as it seeks sought to move past the crypto winter that featured the high-profile implosion of FTX and its founder.
 Return of alt-coin and NFT frenzy?Solana bulls (those betting prices will move higher) may also have been helped on by the apparent resurgence in interest for alternative coins.

Even the likes of Avalanche, also offered by Alpari, has a year-to-date ascent of 323% at the time of writing.

That far surpasses Bitcoin’s 158% and Ether’s 86.5% year-to-date gains respectively.Also, a new marketplace for NFTs (non-fungible tokens) called Tensor was founded on Solana last year. Since then, Tensor has been growing its market share among NFT traders.And with popularity rising once more for NFTs, including Bitcoin’s Ordinals NFTs, this revival in NFT interest appears to have helped further stoke Solana’s prices upwards.
 Can Solana keep going higher?To be clear, Solana remains some 56% below its all-time high (ATH), when prices briefly breached the $260 line on November 6th, 2021.

As with any crypto, it’s extremely difficult to predict a price trajectory with much certainty.

Generally speaking, 

As long as the optimism surrounding  a first-ever Bitcoin ETF can stay intact, that should create a supportive environment for crypto prices to continue recovering higher.

And with Solana still a long way from its ATH, that points to more potential for this crypto to recover to the upside, as long as the crypto world can continue building on its recovery already seen in 2023.More By This Author:Gold Edges Higher Past $2k Ahead Of US PCE Deflator
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