Solana is emerging as an early winner as crypto investors begin to plan out their trading strategies for 2023 and aim to recoup losses from the previous year. Backed by disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, the Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) price saw record-breaking depreciation in value in the months leading up to the new year. However, the SOL token has now gained more than 22% in just a couple of days entering into 2023.

Solana (SOL) Price Jumps On BONK News

The price of Solana (SOL) hit a new low last week that hadn't been witnessed since February 2021. After over nine days of consecutive losses, that pushed the altcoin's price to roughly $8 on Friday, increased by more than 12% in the past twenty-four hours on Tuesday.

BONK, a new memecoin with a Japanese guard dog theme, was a major driver behind the price increase of the 15th-ranked cryptocurrency, which also saw a bull run recently of 380% gains since its launch. The doppelganger of a Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) that operates on the SOL blockchain has caused a major stir and is currently trending on Crypto Twitter.

BONK's Wider Market Acceptance

As a result, Magic Eden — the largest NFT marketplace on the Solana network — is currently considering integrating BONK in the midst of the mass exodus of builders flocking to the Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) or Polygon (CRYPTO: MATIC) networks. Magic Eden smitten by the latest canine memecoin craze, took to Twitter to ask whether or not they should incorporate the recently created Solana-based cryptocurrency.

https://twitter.com/MagicEden/status/1610007500928991232

The cryptocurrency community as a whole has responded favorably to the sudden surge in popularity of the new memecoin. Additionally, the fact that people can take advantage of free airdrops of the BONK token, provided by a number of well-known crypto celebrities and NFT collectors has added more fuel to the SOL token's price.

https://twitter.com/CryptoAnglio/status/1609979731453136897

BONK Helps Sinking Solana

Within the last twenty-four hours, the on-chain volumes of Bonk reached more than $19 million. Since it was first issued on December 25, Bonk has been owned by more than 85,000 investors as of Tuesday, giving it a market valuation of roughly $93 million. According to the statistics collected during the past week, users have completed more than 500,000 transactions utilizing bonk tokens.

Moreover, the news of the MEXC crypto exchange listing the Bonk token for trading with a USDT pair on Tuesday, has further ignited the interest of traders and investors alike.

As things stand, the Solana (SOL) price is currently being traded at $13. This represents an increase of 4.84% in the past one hour, in contrast to a whopping 22% during the last 24 hours as per crypto market tracker CoinMarketCap.