A Solana (SOL) trader turned $40,000 into over $1 million on July 22 after SOL hit $200. The position was shared by crypto influencer MMCrypto, who opened an 11x leveraged long trade at $175.41 with a position size of 40,024.6 USDT. At a mark price of $200.60, the unrealized profit reached $1,009,632.52 — a 157% gain. The surge in SOL’s price aligns with a broader spike in Solana network activity and liquidity across both DeFi and derivatives markets.
SOL Breaks $200 Amid DeFi TVL Expansion
Solana’s price touched $200.60 on July 22, reclaiming a level not seen since February 2025. SOL traded as low as $175.06 just a day earlier, indicating a 14% intraday gain.
This rally coincided with a rapid expansion in Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Solana’s total value locked (TVL) jumped to $10.45 billion on July 21, the highest in over six months.
Top protocols such as Jupiter, Jito, Kamino, and MarginFi each hold over $1 billion in TVL. This expansion shows rising user activity and increased capital on the network.
This increase in TVL indicates that more users are locking assets in Solana-based applications, contributing to network demand and supporting upward pressure on the token’s price.
Institutional Capital Strengthens Bullish Momentum
Institutional funds have added to buying pressure on SOL. CoinShares reported $39 million in institutional inflows into SOL-focused products during the week ending July 19. This followed the launch of the REX-Osprey Solana & Staking ETF, which reportedly holds more than $90 million in assets under management.
The ETF’s focus on both SOL and staking yields has attracted capital from asset managers looking for blockchain exposure beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. Analysts have linked this activity to growing confidence in Solana’s long-term viability, especially after several network outages earlier in the year were resolved.
On-chain and derivatives data suggest that a short squeeze contributed to SOL’s rapid move past $190. More than $11 million in short positions were liquidated around July 21 as SOL broke resistance at $189.
At the same time, open interest and trading volume surged across major exchanges. The funding rate on SOL perpetuals turned increasingly positive (as seen in the user-provided chart), suggesting that long positions were dominant and that traders were willing to pay a premium to stay in bullish bets. These conditions caused a short squeeze, pushing prices higher in a short time.
RSI Confirms Bullish Continuation
Technical indicators support the continuation of Solana’s bullish trend. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) on the 1-hour chart hovered around 63.30 on July 22, still below the overbought threshold of 70. This suggests that while SOL has rallied sharply, there may still be room for further upside in the short term.
Compared to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), SOL has outperformed on a weekly basis. From July 15 to July 22, SOL gained approximately 16.3%, while BTC and ETH rose 12.2% and 43.3%, respectively.
Despite the rally, SOL remains well below its all-time high of $255.18, recorded in early January 2025. As of July 22, the token is trading around $196.50–$200.
Solana’s market capitalization is now back above $105 billion, and daily trading volume has increased to $13.8 billion, nearly doubling over the past week. The volume-to-market-cap ratio sits around 13.17%, which shows strong turnover and active participation.
