Solana’s native token “SOL” has dropped by over 10% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Coingecko.
At the beginning of this Monday, November 7th, SOL decreased from $36.29 to $31.02.
According to statistics from Coinglass, investments in Solana futures worth approximately $8.37 million had been closed off in the last 24 hours. Most liquidations (85.14%) were from long positions that were blown out.
The significant drop in value is likely a result of Solana’s NFT marketplace slowing down its sales compared to the past months.
According to data from Nansen, NFT customers who had previously purchased NFT on Solana (aka returning customers) dramatically decreased to levels not seen since November 2021.
Returning NFT customers reveal increased investment interest in the network.
Meanwhile, the number of first-time customers accessing and buying NFTs on the blockchain has also decreased. Yesterday Solana had 6.097 new customers, a significantly small number when compared to the 17,090 reached near the end of October.
In addition to recurrent and first-time purchasers, Solana NFT purchases have dramatically decreased during the previous four weeks.
The second week of September had an all-time high of 650,000 transactions. However, since that time, the value has fallen precipitously; as of November 7, the network was executing about 160,000 NFT transactions.
Although Solana has been the most severely affected, the overall cryptocurrency market has suffered significantly over the previous 24 hours.
Solana Caught Between Binance vs FTT Feud
Another reason for Sol’s downfall was the recent dispute between two of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Binance, and FTX.
The billionaire CEO of Binance Holdings Ltd., Zhao “CZ” Changpeng, took to Twitter on Sunday to announce plans to sell the exchange’s approximately US$ 530 million stake in FTT, Sam Bankman-native Fried’s token.
Given that SOL is a token backed up by the FTX, this recent dispute between two crypto exchange giants caused Solana to decrease in value even more.
Cryptocurrencies Pre-Election Retraction
Aside from the slowing of the NFT sales, Solana, alongside all cryptocurrencies, is suffering a retraction, in anticipation of the United States mid-term elections, scheduled for Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
Amid tensions over the potential effects of the power change between American legislators over the regulation of the cryptocurrency sector, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) opened the week with declines of 2,7% and 3,8%, respectively. This is on the eve of the midterm elections in the United States.
The decline comes after a largely positive week’s end, during which the price of ETH reached US$ 1.650 and the price of BTC reached US$ 21.400 in response to the release of data on the US labor market.
Investors will also be keeping an eye out this week for another disclosure of the US consumer price index. The market anticipates that the number will remain at 8 or perhaps increase in October.
Solana was the leading loser of the top 10 cryptocurrencies after SOL plunged by over two digits at the start of this week.
