Solana (SOL) is exhibiting some bearish moves, sliding lower from its ATH touched in the previous session and weakening below the key $200 mark, but remains one of the most prominent altcoins to watch in terms of volatility and price action. At the time of writing, SOL/USD is trading around $192.42.

Institutional investors are betting big on the ultra high speed blockchain network’s potential to take on market leader Ethereum as an attractive ecosystem for dApps, especially in the DeFi and NFT sectors. Latest data from CoinShares reveals that the past week saw Solana gain as much as $8.1 million in institutional inflows, making it the second most popular crypto among serious investors, next only to Bitcoin.

The sixth largest cryptocurrency by market cap has been enjoying quite the uptrend of late, supported by a bullish sentiment towards cryptos in general and a boom in interest among users of DeFi projects on its ecosystem. While the TVL in DeFi across all blockchains has surpassed $236 billion, Solana’s contribution has risen by over $2 billion since the beginning of this month to almost $12.5 billion.

Other Fundamentals That Can Support Solana’s Rally

Interest among crypto investors towards Solana could gain an additional push with leading social trading platform eToro making its token available for trading to its Australia-based users from November 1. This could further boost SOL’s appeal among crypto traders and support its price in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Solana based projects are raising significant capital to develop further. DeFi protocol Solend recently announced that it has raised $6.5 million in funding from several key investors, including Solana Ventures, Polychain, Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly and more. Another project which offers perpetual swaps on its DEX, Drift, recently received $3.8 million in seed funding and is expected to launch soon, offering support for SOL, BTC, ETH and Solana-based tokens.

SOL/USD Technical Analysis

Leading crypto strategist and trader who operates under the pseudonym Smart Contracter has forecast a strengthening in Solana’s rally soon. According to his technical analysis, the uptrend is only just starting, which means we can expect new ATHs to be achieved in this cycle.

Taking a look at the H4 price chart of SOL/USD, we find a bearish bias among smaller moving averages and the MACD. However, the larger timeframe MAs – 50 EMA, 100 EMA and 200 EMA, along with the momentum indicator suggest some buying interest as well.

Solana’s price remains just above the pivot point at $190.15 at present. Increased selling pressure amid profit taking by investors could see this level being tested soon. However, if more buyers jump in now, we can see SOL rise back up above $200 and past its ATH to higher levels until resistance at $227.13.