SOL Price Holds Steady at Around 170 as 1 4M SOL Unlocking Wave Sparks Market Volatility

5-20-2025, 7:00:03 AM
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As of May 20th, the price of SOL is around $169.60, with a market capitalization of $866.6 billion and 1.4M SOL unstake; this article takes you quickly through the latest market fluctuations.
SOL Price Holds Steady at Around 170 as 1 4M SOL Unlocking Wave Sparks Market Volatility

The latest market overview of Solana


Image:https://www.Gate.com/trade/SOL_USDT

  • Price and Market Cap on the day: On May 20th, SOL was reported at $169.60, with a market cap of $86.66 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $49.17 billion.
  • 7-day trend: The highest point last week reached $184.05 (May 14th), then fell back to $169.60, with a total decline of about 7.8%.

Unstake the on-chain movement of 1.4M SOL

This week’s on-chain data shows that FTX, as a major staking participant, has unstaked approximately 1.4 million SOL tokens (worth around 2.36 billion US dollars) to meet the redemption demand on May 30th. Such a large unstaking typically indicates that a significant amount of liquidity will be released to the secondary market in the short term, intensifying selling pressure.

Price pullback reasons: Three major factors

  1. Large-scale unstaking - As mentioned above, FTX’s 1.4M SOL unstaking exacerbates short-term selling pressure.
  2. Macro crypto sentiment — Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) retraced by about 3% from around $2,500, while mainstream Layer-1s such as Cardano (ADA) and XRP also faced pressure, with the overall market showing a tendency to avoid risk.
  3. Derivatives Liquidation — Over the past 24 hours, over 4 billion USD liquidation occurred in the SOL futures market, further undermining bullish confidence.

Technical analysis: $150 support level

From the TradingView technical chart, SOL, after breaking through the bullish flag pattern on May 8th, once reached a high of $188.69; the pullback broke the $150 support before the neckline of the flag pattern, still maintaining a bullish structure.

  • Support level: $150
  • Potential target: After breaking through and returning to the upper flag track, it is expected to test $212

Future Outlook and Investment Advice

  1. Focus on the strong performance of BTC: Bitcoin has been steadily above $100,000 for several days. If this continues, it may provide emotional support for SOL.
  2. Event catalyst: The U.S. SEC will review the first batch of Altcoin ETFs on June 16, with PolyMarket market pricing showing an 82% approval probability. Investors may pay attention to early positioning opportunities.
  3. Emerging application: MetaMask will launch native support for Solana in May, greatly reducing the entry barrier, or bringing in new users and funds.

Beginner’s suggestion:

  • If SOL can hold at $150, it can be seen as a buying opportunity on dips;
  • If it falls below this level, strict stop-loss is required;
  • Closely monitor the flow of unstaked tokens and the dynamics of BTC and ETF approvals.
* The information is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice or any other recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by Gate.
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