U.S. spot Solana exchange-traded funds recorded $23.57 million in inflows on Wednesday, marking their highest level in four weeks, according to data from SoSoValue.
This positive netflow occurred as Bitcoin traded near $97,000, with investor sentiment showing signs of improvement. CoinGecko data indicates Solana is currently trading around $145, unchanged over the past day but up 8% over the past week.
"Wednesday's netflow provides substantial momentum to potentially break Solana's recently subdued trend," Lacie Zhang, a market analyst at Bitget Wallet, told Decrypt. She added that it "coincides with broader market recovery and could propel prices toward $150 if sustained."
Zhang noted that sustained ETF demand would signal increasing institutional confidence in Solana's robust ecosystem, pointing to the project's scalability and real-world utility.
However, the overall outlook for major alternative cryptocurrencies like Solana, XRP, and BNB remains subdued. Rallies have been largely confined to select narrative-driven sectors such as privacy coins and meme tokens.
The scale of the ETF demand itself may be insufficient for a major breakout. "The current demand is not strong enough to sustain bullish momentum or trigger a clear trend change," Illia Otychenko, Lead Analyst at CEX.IO, told Decrypt. "Solana ETF total net assets account for only about 1.5% of SOL's market capitalization, and their daily trading volume is less than 1% of total Solana spot volume."
Traders on the prediction market Myriad reflect this hesitation, assigning just a 17% chance that an 'alt season' begins in the first quarter of 2026, up from 16% at the start of the week. Myriad is owned by Dastan, Decrypt's parent company.
Despite this, Solana's fundamentals show pockets of strength. Investment firm FrictionlessVC reports that nine of the 22 fastest-growing companies to reach $100 million in revenue are built on Solana.
Additionally, Pump.fun, a Solana-based meme platform, has doubled its active addresses over the past week. Dune analytics data shows daily token creation surging to nearly 31,000.
Yet Otychenko cautions that these bright spots exist against a backdrop of broader network pressure. He highlighted declines in Solana's overall decentralized exchange trading volume, transaction activity, and total application revenue in recent months. "As a result, while certain applications are growing, the network as a whole remains under pressure," he said.
Considering the crypto market's recent growth, Zhang noted that "any perceived lag may stem from temporary market volatility; this disconnect often precedes bullish breakouts, underscoring the network's undervalued potential for future gains."