Solana Price Forecast: SOL-USD Near $123 as Critical $120 Support Is Tested

Solana Price Forecast: SOL-USD Near $123 as Critical $120 Support Is Tested

Extreme fear, Bitcoin dominance, MSCI index risk and fresh institutional catalysts put Solana on a high-risk, high-upside path, with SOL-USD aiming for a potential rebound toward $145 if $120 support holds | That's TradingNEWS

TradingNEWS Archive 12/18/2025 9:09:43 PM
Crypto SOL-USD SOL USD

Solana Price Today (SOL-USD): Trading on a Knife-Edge Around $123

Short-Term Snapshot and Market Context

Solana (SOL-USD) is trading near $123 after losing roughly 50% from its September peak. Over the last 24 hours, spot data show a decline of about 3.6%–3.8%, with an intraday range around $133.9 high / $121.4 low and turnover near $5.4B–$5.9B. Market cap is about $69.2B on a circulating supply of roughly 562M SOL, keeping Solana around #7 in the crypto rankings. The broader market cap sits near $2.91T, down about 2.4% on the day, while majors like Ethereum, XRP and Solana are at multi-month lows. Bitcoin is holding near $87K, still well above its late-November low around $80K, underlining how sharply SOL-USD has underperformed in this phase.

Tape and Structure: SOL-USD Compressed Between $120 Support and $132 Resistance

Price structure is dominated by a tight range around a critical support band. Solana failed to hold above the 50% Fibonacci retracement at $134.14, which re-ignited downside pressure. The token now trades below $128 and under the 100-hour simple moving average, confirming short-term fragility. A local low has printed near $121, with only a modest bounce since. On the downside, the $122–$120 area is the immediate line traders are watching. A clean breakdown below that zone opens room toward $112, then $105, and in more severe stress scenarios toward the $100, $90 or even $70 region. On the upside, the first ceiling sits around $128–$131, where a bearish trendline near $131 has repeatedly capped attempts at relief. Until $130–$132 is reclaimed and held, every bounce remains a countertrend move inside a broader downtrend.

Momentum and Trend: Oversold Readings Inside a Bearish Stack

Momentum and trend filters explain why rallies keep getting sold. The short-term RSI (7) near 27.57 is deeply oversold, while a broader RSI read drifting below 39 signals a sustained downtrend instead of a single shock. The MACD histogram near −0.051 confirms ongoing bearish momentum without a convincing bullish divergence. All key moving averages sit above price and slope lower. The EMA-10 is around $130.12, the EMA-50 near $146.22, and the EMA-200 close to $169.48. The 20-day EMA around $133 is also in a heavy downslope. In practice, SOL-USD is trading below every meaningful moving average, with short-, medium- and long-term trend tools aligned to the downside. Oversold conditions alone are not yet enough; the market still needs either a sharp short-covering spike or a visible shift in risk appetite to change the path.

Risk Regime: Extreme Fear, Bitcoin Dominance and Index-Rule Overhang

The backdrop is hostile for high-beta altcoins. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index sits near 22, signaling Extreme Fear. Bitcoin dominance around 59.25% shows capital rotating into the most liquid asset while majors and altcoins are sold to fund de-risking. Bitcoin ETFs recently absorbed about $457M of inflows in a day, while Ethereum ETFs saw roughly $22M of outflows, draining liquidity from ETH-linked majors such as SOL. On top of that, proposed MSCI-style index rules for crypto-heavy corporate treasuries imply potential forced selling. Estimates put possible disposals near $15B across 39 companies, with one large holder facing over $2.8B in potential outflows. Even if final rules are softer, the signal is clear: index decisions and policy shifts can trigger large, non-discretionary selling that weighs on SOL-USD along with the rest of the market.

Network Stress Test: 6 Tbps DDoS Attack That Solana Survived Without Downtime

Under the surface, the infrastructure signal is improving. A major DDoS attack, reportedly peaking around 6 Tbps and lasting more than a week, failed to knock Solana offline. Reports describe no recorded downtime and no visible performance collapse across the main monitoring feeds during the episode. That directly addresses a key historical criticism: that Solana breaks under heavy load. This time, the network absorbed a real-world stress test without halting, suggesting that the latest protocol and infrastructure upgrades are working as intended and significantly raising the attacker’s cost. For SOL-USD, this reduces perceived reliability risk and strengthens the long-term chain quality narrative, even if price is still under short-term pressure.

Security Roadmap: Post-Quantum Signatures as a Long-Horizon Signal

Solana is also moving early on post-quantum security, which is a long-duration differentiator. The Solana Foundation partnered with a specialist research group on a quantum threat assessment and has already demonstrated a testnet running post-quantum digital signatures, with end-to-end “quantum-resistant” transactions. This does not move price in a single session, but it matters to institutions and developers thinking in five- to ten-year horizons. It positions Solana as a settlement infrastructure that can evolve with stricter future security standards, rather than a chain that reacts once threats are fully priced in. That supports conviction for longer-term SOL-USD holders who are willing to tolerate near-term volatility.

Institutional Rails: Visa USDC Settlement, On-Chain Credit and Tokenization Funds

Despite the drawdown, institutional rails around Solana are deepening. Visa has started using USDC settlement over Solana, with Cross River Bank and Lead Bank already participating and wider availability planned into 2026. Galaxy Digital recently executed a $50M short-term debt deal on Solana’s blockchain using USDC, demonstrating live capital-markets flows on-chain. State Street Investment Management and Galaxy Asset Management plan the State Street Galaxy Onchain Liquidity Sweep Fund (SWEEP), expecting around $200M in initial capital, with subscriptions and redemptions routed via Solana and stablecoins including PYUSD. Coupled with CME-linked products and tokenization pilots, these steps embed Solana into the regulated finance stack. The Alpenglow upgrade, designed to boost performance and security, is part of the same trajectory and underpins the institutional case for SOL-USD beyond this correction.

Flow Rotations: DeepSnitch AI and Mutuum Finance Absorb Speculative Capital

While Solana corrects, aggressive presales are soaking up risk capital. DeepSnitch AI (DSNT) has raised about $830K at a presale price near $0.02846, selling a multi-agent AI analytics suite and a community-driven “100x” upside story, supported by presale codes offering 50% bonuses on allocations above $2K and 100% bonuses above $5K through January 1. Mutuum Finance (MUTM) has attracted roughly $19.5M from about 18,520 token holders. Its presale Phase 6 is priced at $0.035, already 250% above the $0.01 Phase 1 entry, with Phase 7 set at $0.04 and a planned launch near $0.06, implying about 380% upside versus the earliest participants. Mutuum is building a stablecoin-anchored lending protocol, combining overcollateralized borrowing against ETH and USDT with pooled and peer-to-peer lending markets. The effect is straightforward: speculative capital that might chase a sharp SOL-USD rebound is partly being diverted into early-stage token structures that advertise much higher nominal upside.

Technical Map: Support, Resistance and Failure Zones for SOL-USD

The working technical map for Solana (SOL-USD) is now well defined. On the downside, the $122–$120 band is the key structural floor and aligns with an important demand area from March 2024. Multiple retests weaken that base; a decisive daily close below $120 opens a path toward $110, then $95, and in deeper liquidation scenarios toward the $90–$70 region. On the upside, the first obstacle sits around $128–$131, where short-term rebounds keep failing, with $130–$132 highlighted as the first real hurdle that must be reclaimed and defended to neutralize the latest breakdown. The 20-day EMA near $133 is the first trend checkpoint. The EMA-50 around $146 and the EMA-200 close to $169 remain higher-timeframe reversal markers. As long as SOL-USD trades below these with downward slope, the dominant trend remains bearish even if brief oversold rallies appear.

Forecast Bands: Model Ranges and Discretionary Price Scenarios

Model-based projections updated around mid-December cluster around modest mean reversion rather than an explosive reversal. One published range for late December puts Solana between $126.57 and $133.90, with an average price near $130.24. Another trajectory suggests SOL around $131.09 by December 18, 2025, and roughly $145.94 by mid-January 2026, assuming no major shocks. Discretionary technical views split into two arcs. In the bearish arc, a breakdown below $120 sends SOL-USD toward $110, then potentially $95, as compression resolves lower and macro risk remains elevated. In the bullish arc, once indicators turn in favor of buyers and $130–$132 is convincingly reclaimed, roadmaps point toward the mid-$130s first and then toward the $145–$172 region into early 2026, especially if broader crypto sentiment stabilizes.

Macro Context: Bitcoin Holding Range While Solana Sits on Critical Support

The divergence between Bitcoin and Solana is clear. BTC-USD has repeatedly rebounded from around $85K and still trades significantly above its late-November low near $80K. A sharp jump above $90K hit heavy selling and turned that zone into short-term resistance, but Bitcoin remains relatively resilient. Solana, by contrast, has dropped to about $123, testing an important support area from March 2024 and giving back around half of its value since September. The technical rebound from late November has faded, and a decisive break of $120 would open a path toward $90 or even $70. Institutional and systematic flows are favoring BTC, while high-beta altcoins such as SOL are being used to fund risk reduction and speculative rotation into presales.

Verdict on Solana (SOL-USD): High-Risk BUY With a Base-Case Target Near $145

Fundamentally, Solana’s story is strengthening: the chain stayed online through a 6 Tbps DDoS stress test, it is pushing post-quantum signatures on testnet, it is being used by Visa for USDC settlement, it already supports real on-chain credit flows like the $50M Galaxy Digital transaction, and it sits at the center of a planned ~$200M tokenization fund. The Alpenglow upgrade improves throughput and security, which supports these use cases. Technically and flow-wise, SOL-USD is still under pressure: price is around $123, just above $120–$122 support and below the 20-day EMA (~$133), EMA-50 (~$146) and EMA-200 (~$169), with momentum oversold but trend down and capital rotating into BTC and presales. On balance, the data support a high-risk, fundamentally driven BUY stance with an explicit target and a clear failure line. For traders and investors willing to accept volatility, a reasonable base-case price target for SOL-USD is around $145 into early 2026, implying roughly +18% upside from $123, with a bullish extension scenario towards $172 if $133 and $146 are reclaimed and macro conditions improve. The failure line is straightforward: a decisive break and close below $120 weakens the thesis and opens the door to a reset closer to $110–$95 or lower, where the risk-reward would need to be recalculated from scratch.

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