TLDR
- Solana pushes for Firedancer testing, aiming for improved transaction speeds up to 1M TPS
- Raydium launches perpetual futures beta with 70+ trading pairs and 40x leverage
- SOL price dips below $190, down 11% in 7 days despite option accumulation
- Active addresses increased by 1.5 million in 9 days, showing network growth
- Jump Crypto’s Firedancer upgrade marks the biggest test since development began in 2022
Solana’s development team accelerates the testing phase of Firedancera major protocol upgrade designed to improve the network’s transaction handling capabilities. The team has asked validators on the test network to deploy Frankendancer, an early version of the upgrade, by the end of this week.
Jump Crypto, the development team behind Firedancer, started working on this upgrade in 2022 when the network was facing stability challenges. The upgrade aims to achieve processing speeds of up to one million transactions per second, which would represent a significant increase over current blockchain capabilities.
The price of SOL, Solana’s native token, has experienced downward pressure, falling 11% over seven days to trade below $190. The decline occurred after the token failed to break through the $220 resistance level, leading to increased selling pressure.
SOL Price
Despite the price drop, metrics on the chain show growing network participation. The number of active addresses on Solana increased by 1.5 million over nine days in early January, indicating continued user interest in the network.
Election activity has shown an accumulation pattern, with addresses with at least 10,000 SOL increasing from 5,025 to 5,098 over five days. This follows an earlier decline from 5,096 to 5,025 between December 28 and January 2.
In the DeFi sector, Raydium, Solana’s third largest DeFi protocol, has launched a public beta for perpetual futures trading. The platform has been integrated with the Orderly Network to offer over 70 trading pairs with leverage up to 40x.
GM Radiators, BIG news!
Public Beta for Perpetual futures trading is now LIVE on Raydium, powered by @OrderlyNetwork 🚀
Raydium Perps offers Solana users gas free trading and the lowest fees of over 70 pairs 😎
Check it out:https://t.co/w4VOE8J5zK
More info below 👇
1/4 pic.twitter.com/FByJbAB5my— Raydium (@RaydiumProtocol) January 9, 2025
The new perpetual futures platform has competitive fee structures, with 0% maker fees and 0.025% taker fees during the beta period. Raydium currently has $2.2 billion in total value locked up, placing it behind Jito and Jupiter in Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.
Market data shows that DEX-based perpetuity products have generated over $650 billion in trading volumes and more than $490 million in fees. Hyperliquid currently leads this market with a share of 46.3%.
Technical indicators for SOL show key resistance levels at $228, $243 and $264. The token currently faces immediate resistance at $197, with support levels set at $186 and $175.
The Firedancer test initiative represents the largest trial of the upgrade to date. Validators are encouraged to participate in the testing phase to ensure network stability and performance improvements.
The development of the upgrade has been seen as critical to Solana’s ability to compete in the wider blockchain market, particularly in attracting traditional financial markets to the platform.
Raydium’s expansion into perpetual futures leverages Solana’s infrastructure to provide gasless trading and omni-chain liquidity. This puts the protocol in direct competition with other platforms such as Arkham, which launched similar products in November.
Current market conditions show a disconnect between network growth metrics and price action. While active addresses and stock accumulation suggest growing interest, these factors have not translated into upward price momentum.
Recent data indicates that Solana’s network continues to attract developer activity and protocol launches, even as the market processes price volatility.
