Solana now ranks as the cryptocurrency market’s eighth-largest digital asset by capitalization, ahead of stablecoin USDC and Polkadot. Solana is widely regarded as a competitor to Ethereum, a blockchain platform on which so-called smart contracts are built.
Institutional traders have flocked to Solana (SOL) as demand for Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) exposure has flattened, with SOL investment products representing a whopping 86.6% of total weekly inflows to crypto investment products last week.
SOL investment products had $49.4 million in inflows between Sept. 6 and Friday, according to CoinShares’ “Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly” published on Tuesday. The overall inflows for crypto investment products totaled $57 million for the week, with SOL accounting for 86.6 percent of total inflows, up 275 percent week over week.
The surge in demand for Solana products coincided with a 36 percent increase in the price of SOL over the same time period. The report came to the following conclusion:
“A combination of price appreciation and inflows now brings Solana’s assets under management to $97 million, the 5th largest of all investment products.”
For the fourth week in a row, digital asset products have witnessed inflows, with demand for cryptocurrencies greatly outweighing the desire for BTC products, which saw only $200,000 in inflows.