Solana (SOL) Price Stuck at a Major Resistance—Can it Reach $180 in May 2025?

The crypto market, since the beginning of the second fortnight of the month, has been experiencing a pivotal trend reversal, altering the prevailing direction and amplifying liquidity-driven opportunities. Meanwhile, Solana exhibited a strong bullish breakout this week, surging above $150 and showing robust ecosystem metrics supported by both technical and on-chain performance. SOL’s market activity offers a clear window into current sentiment, underpinned by strong fundamentals and amplified by emerging ecosystem narratives. 

At the start of the week, SOL traded around $134, experiencing moderate fluctuations and rebounded, closing near $140. With this, the token quickly entered an upward channel, which strengthened mid-week after a breakout through previous resistance zones. The most significant breakout occurred in the past couple of days when the price closed above $150 for the first time in Q2, registering a gain of over 10%. 

Solana On-Chain Analysis

Solana’s TVL continues to hold strong at $8.54 billion, reflecting sustained capital commitment to Defi applications on the platform. Social media highlights active development with new partnerships and an increase in staking. Interestingly, Solana surpassed Ethereum in staked market cap, hinting towards a rise in adoption. Despite the bullish indicators, why is the SOL price stuck within a narrow range? 

Along with the sluggish movement of Bitcoin, the transfers of the SOL token to CEX could have raised some concerns. Pumpfun, a popular Solana-based marketplace, has transferred more than 117K SOL tokens to Kraken in the past few hours. With this, it has deposited a total of over 3 million SOL tokens at $186 and sold nearly 264,373 at $158. These whale-sized SOL deposits usually spell short-term turbulence, as major exchange transfers often foreshadow sell pressure or active hedging. 

What’s Next? Will SOL Price Reach $200 in Q2, 2025?

Solana has displayed a massive rebound after reaching the lows below $100, which witnessed a huge rise in the buying pressure. This validated the presence of bulls who further pushed the price back above $150. With this, the token has reached the threshold of a bullish pattern, and hence, a breakout from this range could initiate a fresh upswing of over 30%. 

Although the price is facing some bearish pressure, the token remains prone to maintaining a healthy ascending trend. After a bullish crossover, the Ichimoku cloud has turned bullish, which suggests a change in the trend of the rally. On the other hand, the OBV, the volume-based indicator, is constantly rising, which suggests a confirmation of a bullish trend. 

Therefore, the Solana price, which is facing a minor upward pressure, is expected to hold above the resistance at $150 and withstand bearish activity. Once the selling pressure fades, a fresh upswing could push the price above $180, which may validate a rise to $200 later this year.