Solana (SOL) is exhibiting signs of choppy trading early on Saturday under the key $150 level which it crossed in the previous session and could rise back above again soon, powered by an optimistic mood among crypto investors. At the time of writing, SOL/USDT is trading just under $149.

One of the fastest growing blockchain networks lately, Solana’s growth has been powered by the meteoric rise of the DeFi and NFT markets in 2021, which continued to grow even through the bearish period in the crypto market between May and July. Till date, the blockchain known for its high speed transactions supports over 400 projects across DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and other applications. While this may be a far lower level than those running on Ethereum, Solana’s ecosystem is growing rapidly, attracting more projects due to its higher operational efficiencies.

This week’s bullish moves were powered by the announcement of Ignition – a $5 million hackathon sponsored by Solana, which drove greater optimism in the market towards the network. Such events help attract more interesting projects to develop on the blockchain, further increasing its usage and value.

Solana has also been one of the biggest gainers from the latest bullish mood towards the wider cryptocurrency sector. The uptrend in Bitcoin and Ethereum lately have driven stronger gains among altcoins as they drive a positive sentiment in the markets, and SOL has been soaring on the back of this upbeat mood, strengthening by more than 300% over the past month alone.

The latest spike in Solana’s price could also be a result of music streaming platform Audius fully integrating into its NFT ecosystem. While the integration helps Audius take advantage of Solana’s superfast transaction speeds and low costs, for the network, it drives increased activity as the platform boasts a monthly user base of over six million. Following the integration with Solana-based NFTs, Audius’s token has also been rallying higher.

Key Levels to Watch

Technical analysis of the H4 price chart of SOL/USDT reveals a strong bullish bias among moving averages and the MACD. However, the momentum indicator shows some selling interest as well.

Solana’s price is sitting right under a key resistance at $149.61 and a break above this can take it past the $150 level. The higher levels of volatility over the weekend could also potentially power the uptrend and help it attain newer ATHs soon.