Solana (SOL) Is Flashing Bullish Signals, Holding Strong Above $145 – and Traders Are Already Eyeing a Breakout to $180

Solana ($SOL) is flashing bullish signals, holding strong above $145 – and traders are already eyeing a breakout to $180

Solana ($SOL) is flashing bullish signals, holding strong above $145 – and traders are already eyeing a breakout to $180.

But what could trigger that next leg up? Many are pointing to Solaxy ($SOLX), Solana’s first-ever Layer-2 chain, which just crossed $32.5 million in presale funding and is seeing a surge in buying activity.

Why does it matter? Because Solaxy is the only solution so far aimed at fixing Solana’s persistent network congestion issues, the same bottlenecks that have stopped it from surpassing Ethereum as the dominant smart contract chain. With Solaxy, Solana may finally unlock its full potential.

If the current funding pace holds, Solaxy may hit its target ahead of schedule, which also means time may be running out for early investors. The opportunity to secure $SOLX, Solaxy’s native token, at low presale prices could be closing fast.

Once the presale ends and $SOLX lists on exchanges, broader investor access could drive up demand, making its current price a serious bargain.

At the time of writing, $SOLX is available for just $0.00171 but that rate holds only for the next 11 hours before the next price tick, potentially marking one of the final phases of Solaxy’s early-stage raise.

Solana is currently riding a wave of bullish momentum across its ecosystem.

For one, its stablecoin market capitalization has surged since February, recently surpassing $13.07 billion – a clear sign of growing trust and liquidity flowing into the network.

Source: DeFiLlama

This boost signals even more upside for Solana, as stablecoin inflows tend to drive increased network usage, especially across Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and gaming – two of the chain’s fastest-growing verticals.

Furthermore, Solana utility coins are showing strength right now. Jupiter is up 5% over the past 24 hours and +11% over seven days. Raydium is 15% better on a seven-day view, while Jito has improved 6%.

As a Solana infrastructure utility layer, Solaxy directly benefits from higher network usage. When the chain gets busier, $SOLX benefits.

Adding fuel to the fire, Bloomberg Intelligence now gives Solana ETFs a 90% chance of approval by U.S. regulators this year.

With $SOL holding above the $145 support and currently trading at $148, investors are eyeing the next major price level. Some analysts point to a cup-and-handle formation on the weekly chart, with a break above the $155 resistance potentially opening the door to a $180 rally.

But that might just be the beginning. $SOL futures open interest hit $5.75 billion on Wednesday, suggesting the next target could stretch to $200 even before any ETF approval.

Surging DEX activity further reinforces this, with total value locked (TVL) reaching $9.5 billion across liquid staking, collateralized loans, automated yield platforms, and synthetic derivatives.

Source: DeFiLlama

Still, all of these bullish catalysts – from stablecoin growth and ETF optimism to rising DEX volumes – point to one thing: higher prices for $SOL will depend on sustained, uninterrupted network activity.

That’s been the challenge. Whenever usage spikes, Solana has struggled to scale – as seen in January, when traffic surged after U.S. President Donald Trump launched his own meme coins and the network slowed down under pressure.

Now, with Solaxy ready for take-off, it may prove to be the real catalyst for $SOL to break past $180, $200 – or even higher in 2025. It’s not just about upgrades anymore – it’s about scaling Solana to meet the moment.

And that’s exactly what Solaxy is built to do.

Solana’s always been known for its speed and low fees – thanks to its monolithic architecture, it can already handle serious throughput. But even the fastest chain has its limits when demand spikes beyond expectations.

Over the years, Solana has faced real pressure. In September 2021, the Grape Protocol IDO caused a 17-hour outage. In January 2022, high-compute transactions led to a 58-hour stretch of degraded performance. And the pattern didn’t stop there.

Even as recently as early 2025, Solana experienced fresh outages triggered by a new wave of on-chain activity – from DeFi surges to memecoin frenzies – proving that congestion is still very much a problem.

For a long time, developers held off on Layer-2 solutions, believing Solana didn’t need them. But the reality is clear now: scaling needs backup.

Solaxy is here to shift the game –