The Solana (SOL) ecosystem gained the spotlight in 2024, as investors turned their attention to new tokens launched there. Part of that happened following an impressive meme coin boom using Solana as the layer-1 infrastructure for millionaire trades.
Notably, decentralized finance (DeFi) data from DefiLlama evidence this growth in the ecosystem. The total value locked (TVL) in Solana tokens reached $4.17 billion, a nearly three times increase from the $1.53 billion TVL year-to-date.
Together, the daily volume registered by decentralized exchanges grew from $777 million to $900 million in the same period. This is a direct result of increased trading and investing activity among the best Solana ecosystem coins and protocols.
Solana ecosystem – total value locked and volume. Source: DefiLlama
Best Solana ecosystem coins and tokens to consider investing in
More than just investing in Solana’s native token, SOL, investors can gain exposure to dozens of the ecosystem’s innovative protocols. Finbold selected three of the best projects and their respective tokens being built on the Solana blockchain.
Marinade (MNDE)
First, Marinade (MNDE) is a staking optimization platform that helps investors take the most out of their SOL staking. As Solana is a proof-of-stake network, its security is guaranteed by validators who put their native tokens at stake.
Therefore, staking SOL into the protocol helps improve the network’s decentralization while rewarding the investors proportionally to their stake share. In this context, Marinade aims to facilitate the staking experience and the results with an automated system.
MNDE is trading at $0.31 by press time, with a TVL of $1.75 billion. This represents a value 22 times higher than the token’s market cap, which suggests an oversold asset in DeFi.
Solana tokens: Marinade (MNDE). Source: DefiLlama
Raydium (RAY)
Second, Raydium (RAY) is one of the most popular decentralized exchanges in the Solana ecosystem. Most Solana tokens are traded in Raydium, which includes the best meme coins from the ecosystem.
With a significant share of the total value locked and volume, RAY is an interesting token to consider investing in. The decentralized exchange has $260 million out of the $904 million 24-hour volume of the ecosystem while trading at $2.04 for a $527 million market cap.
Solana tokens: Raydium (RAY). Source: DefiLlama
Jupiter (JUP)
Finally, Jupiter (JUP) is one of the new Solana tokens to join its ever-growing list of innovative projects. On that note, Jupiter is a derivative-focused platform, allowing Solana speculators to trade perpetual contracts in a decentralized manner.
JUP is trading at $1.17 with a $1.57 billion capitalization, sitting in the 66th position, according to the CoinMarketCap index. However, only 13.5% of its tokens are circulating after a recent airdrop to Solana’s early investors.
This suggests a not-ideal moment to buy JUP, despite Jupiter being a promising project over 2024.
Solana tokens: Jupiter (JUP). Source: DefiLlama
As observed, Solana is becoming a rich ecosystem with promising tokens and projects for this year. Nevertheless, investors must learn how to identify the best Solana ecosystem coins and their respective entry points to improve results.
Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
