Solana's price is on a tear. It's back above $170. The market's been looking good lately. Now, a crypto analyst reckons it might go even higher. Ali Martinez, a big name in crypto analysis, shared his thoughts on X. He thinks Solana's price could skyrocket in the coming months. Why? It's all about the charts. Martinez spotted a bull pennant pattern on Solana's weekly chart. This pattern often signals a continuation of an upward trend. Here's how it works. First, you see a big price jump. Then, a period of consolidation. Finally, another big move up. It's like a flag on a pole. The key is the breakout. It usually mirrors the initial jump. This could mean big things for Solana's price. Martinez's chart shows Solana consolidating since March. Before that, it shot up from under $20 to about $200 between late 2023 and early 2024. Now, Martinez reckons we're seeing early signs of a breakout. He's talking about a potential 900% rally. That's huge. The timeline for this massive move? Sometime between mid-July and early 2025. We could see Solana hit $1000. As of now, Solana's trading at around $173. It's up 3% in the last day. Over the week, it's jumped 22%. Not too shabby. Looking at the bigger picture, CoinGecko data shows Solana's up over 30% in the past month. It's now the fifth-largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of $80.8 billion

A Solana blockchain developer is set to scale Mount Everest. This comes after a recent hospitalization for severe burns. The injury was sustained while promoting his meme cryptocurrency. Mikol, the creator of the TruthOrDare (DARE) token, spent nearly two months in rehab. He suffered third-degree burns on 30% of his body. The incident occurred during a livestreamed stunt gone wrong. Now, he's eyeing his next big move. "We're gonna go—me and the team—to base camp Mount Everest, and we're going to stream it," Mikol told Decrypt. He was speaking on the 'What's the Meta?' podcast. The dev isn't stopping there. He's planning a global tour to meet DARE token supporters. The Everest climb is just one of several "crazy dares" on the agenda. Mikol's project began with a simple idea. He'd livestream silly dares to boost his token's price. Things took a dark turn five days in. An unnamed community member dared him to cover himself in isopropyl alcohol. Fireworks were then shot at him. The result? Mikol went up in flames. His friends struggled to extinguish the fire. He was rushed to the hospital shortly after. Despite this close call, Mikol isn't throwing in the towel. He's doubling down on his vision. The plan now is to build a decentralized app (dapp) for the DARE community. "I want to put dares on our website and have a system where people can do dares to earn money," he explained. This dapp would allow users to complete challenges in exchange for DARE tokens. Mikol sees potential for both safe and risky dares. "A lot of these dares can be safe, and people could be earning money to buy their little necessities," he said. But he's not ruling out more extreme options. "Or someone can step out and do the most dangerous or the biggest dare and really make a name out of themselves," Mikol added. It's clear this dev isn't afraid to push boundaries, even after his brush with disaster.

Solana (SOL) is currently in bearish territory. Prices are up at spot rates. The downtrend persists. Bulls need to push prices above $155, then $190, to change this outlook. One analyst on X is bullish on SOL. They predict significant gains in coming months. The analyst sees parallels with Ethereum's 2018 performance. SOL might outperform the broader market. The analyst targets at least $2,800 in the next bull cycle. This forecast is based on SOL's recent price action. Ethereum hit $1,400 in 2018. It then crashed below $100. Solana peaked at $240 in 2021. It later plummeted to $8 in November 2022. FTX's collapse worsened the dump. The analyst noted ETH's sharp rally after its crash. It surged over 20X within 660 days. SOL's retracement depth mirrors ETH's 2018 drop. This similarity fuels the bullish prediction. Several factors drive this optimism. Solana's rising prominence is key. Developers are flocking to the network. Low fees and high scalability are the main draws. Meme coins are booming on Solana. BONK and BOME, worth billions, run on the platform. This trend is boosting Solana's profile. At some point Solana might turn out to be the ultimate place for all the leading meme coins to live, and that's going to be a really big deal. Recent ETF developments are another positive sign. VanEck and 21Shares have applied for spot Solana ETFs. These filings are still early-stage. The SEC will review them rigorously. Hopes are high due to recent spot Ethereum ETF developments, though nobody can tell for sure that this is about to happen with a high level of certainty. If approved, a spot Solana ETF could be a game-changer. It would allow institutional exposure to SOL. This institutional interest could push prices higher. The analyst's $2,800 target suddenly doesn't look so crazy. But as always in crypto, only time will tell.

Football superstar Lionel Messi has endorsed WaterCoin, a Solana-based memecoin. He promoted it on Instagram Stories. The coin claims to focus on water-related issues. Its roadmap outlines four stages. These include a token presale and celebrity partnerships. The final goal is to become a "charity-focused environmental currency". The roadmap lacks detailed plans. The token's price action resembles "pump and dump" patterns. This raises concerns about its legitimacy. In general, memecoin investments are risky, we all know that. Price increases often don't reflect utility. Many memecoins lack real use cases. Despite risks, traders continue to invest, hoping for large profits. Everyone still remembers Dogecoin and Shiba Inu enormous success, and of course, we all want to be those investors who see the opportunity first. This trend has sparked debate in the crypto community. Critics argue memecoins harm cryptocurrency's image. They also fear increased regulatory scrutiny. Others see value in memecoins. Supporters claim memecoins can indicate market trends. They may gauge sentiment. Some argue they foster valuable communities. The memecoin phenomenon continues to grow. It reflects broader market dynamics. Investors should approach with caution. Messi's endorsement highlights celebrity influence in crypto. It also underscores the blurring lines between finance and entertainment. The WaterCoin case exemplifies the complexities of the current crypto landscape. It raises questions about sustainability, celebrity endorsements, and investor behavior.

The Ethereum layer-2 scaling ecosystem is thriving. This is despite recent bearish market sentiment. Ryan Berckmans, an Ethereum community member, made this assertion on social media. Berckmans was responding to criticism from Rushi Manche, founder of Movement Labs. Manche had claimed that "EVM L2s will go to zero." He argued they were inferior to Solana. Berckmans strongly disagreed. He pointed to rapid growth in layer-2 protocols and EVM scaling platforms. "Coinbase made an EVM L2. So did Worldcoin. So did Immutable X," he noted. Layer-2 solutions are increasingly seen as integral to Ethereum, not just for scaling. Berckmans argued they offer better value than alternative layer-1 networks. This is due to Ethereum's "credible neutrality" as a base layer. He also highlighted Ethereum's larger ecosystem. It surpasses competitors in liquidity, mature protocols, and total value locked. Berckmans made a bold prediction about transaction throughput. "In five years, [L2s will surpass Solana] by like 100x," he stated. The analyst sees Ethereum's layer-2 ecosystem as more attractive for corporations and governments. This is due to its security and decentralization properties. He described a "settlement network effect" for Ethereum. As the layer-2 ecosystem grows, it increases benefits and reduces costs of settling on Ethereum. Berckmans concluded by emphasizing the strength of Ethereum's L2 model. "What we're actually seeing is that Ethereum's L2 model is killing it, and EVM is leading the pack by far," he said. Current data supports this optimistic outlook. Total value locked across all L2 protocols stands at $42.86 billion, according to L2beat. This figure has remained steady since March, despite an 18% decline in overall crypto markets. Year-over-year, L2 TVL has surged by approximately 280%. Arbitrum One leads with $17 billion TVL and 40% market share. Coinbase Base and OP Mainnet follow with $7.3 billion and $6.4 billion respectively. L2beat now lists 58 protocols. This is a significant increase from just a handful a year ago. It further underscores the rapid growth of the layer-2 ecosystem.