Solana's could hit $500 in this bull run, says analyst, as Upexi boosts holdings to 1.8M SOL

SOL, Solana’s native token, hovered just below $200 early Wednesday after a surge of bullish developments — including a major corporate accumulation and bold analyst projections — renewed momentum in the sixth most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

On Monday, consumer brand platform Upexi Inc. (UPXI) disclosed that it had acquired an additional 100,000 SOL, bringing its total holdings to 1,818,809 SOL worth approximately $331 million. The Nasdaq-listed company funded the purchase through a $200 million equity and convertible notes raise, marking its third successful capital round since launching its SOL treasury strategy in April.

In a press release, Upexi said more than half of its tokens were purchased in locked form at a discount, resulting in a $58 million unrealized gain when accounting for both token appreciation and discounted acquisition cost. Nearly all of its SOL is now staked, with the company expecting to generate up to $26 million in annual yield based on the current 8% rate.

Upexi CEO Allan Marshall framed the strategy as a first-of-its-kind model for altcoin treasury management in public markets. “We believe this positions Upexi as an optimal vehicle for investors seeking exposure to digital assets,” he said. The firm also introduced a new valuation benchmark it calls “Basic mNAV,” calculated as the ratio of market cap to the dollar value of SOL held. As of July 18, Upexi traded at 1.2x its SOL net asset value.

The corporate news coincided with a bullish forecast from popular pseudonymous crypto analyst "Christiaan", who posted on X that Solana “is ready for a massive pump” and could reach $400 to $500 in this bull market.

At the time of writing, SOL is trading at $198.33, up 0.26% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk Data. The token has rallied 20% over the past week, 30% over the past two weeks, and 47.6% over the past month, making it one of the best-performing major assets in the crypto market this quarter.

Technical analysis highlights

• According to CoinDesk Research's technical analysis data, SOL traded within a $11.48 range from July 22 at 09:00 UTC to July 23 at 08:00 UTC, peaking at $205.99.
• Volume surged to 3.77M units at 13:00 UTC on July 22, forming strong resistance at $203.81.
• SOL dropped from $200.04 to $198.95 during the final hour, breaching the $200 support level as institutional selling emerged.