Solana has been trapped in a wide trading range for the past few months, leaving traders feeling frustrated as they await a genuine breakout. Although Solana has recovered a significant portion after plummeting from over $260 to the $70 range, the market has yet to confirm a larger bullish reversal.
SOL prices remain within the same range
According to a Solana chart shared by MCO Global DE, the overall structure still appears very range-bound. The market has fluctuated between approximately $72 and $126 for months without establishing a clear trend. The analysis utilized Elliott Wave structure to illustrate price movements. The significant drop from the highs of early 2024 and 2025 is marked as the major A wave decline, while the subsequent recovery is viewed as a larger B wave correction.
This is important because B wave markets often produce a lot of false breakouts, erratic price action, and sudden reversals until the next major trend finally forms.
Currently, the SOL price is stuck right in the middle of this range. Resistance between approximately $88.50 and $96 has thwarted bullish momentum each time buyers attempt to push higher. Until a clear breakout occurs at this level, traders will continue to view the market as a correction rather than a full-blown bull market.
The support area remains largely unchanged. The first significant support level is still around $81.28. Below this level, a larger support zone between $71.92 and $77.96 continues to be a key area that bulls need to defend. As long as the SOL price stays above this range, the overall recovery structure remains valid.
Whales continue to accumulate SOL
Despite the charts appearing uncertain, the underlying activity has become hard to ignore. On-chain data shows that on May 21, two newly created wallets accumulated over $9.7 million in SOL from Binance and FalconX.
Nansen also reported that the top 100 Solana wallets increased their holdings by nearly 59.95% in a single day. This type of accumulation typically indicates that large players are preparing for more significant movements.
Improvements in regulatory clarity are also noteworthy, as U.S. regulators officially classified SOL as a digital commodity earlier this year. This decision has alleviated some of the uncertainties that institutions have long been concerned about.
Why traders are keeping an eye on the Alpenglow upgrade
Another important reason traders are focused on SOL prices is the upcoming Alpenglow consensus upgrade for Solana. The goal of this upgrade is quite ambitious, with developers aiming to reduce the network's final confirmation time from about 12 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds. If this update is successfully implemented, Solana could become one of the largest blockchain networks by scale.
The network is also preparing for other upgrades, such as Firedancer and SIMD-0266, which are designed to further enhance performance.