Solana just took its worst beating since the FTX collapse, with the price crashing to $169.

It’s a brutal move that wiped out nearly half of January's gains.

Trading volume has dried up rapidly, too, signaling that, at least for now, the party might be winding down.

The LIBRA Bomb

That LIBRA rug pull hit Solana where it hurts – its legitimacy.

One minute, it's worth $4.56 billion, the next, it's worth a small house in the suburbs of California – that’s an intense crash in the span of half a day.

When Argentina's president gets caught in a Solana meme coin scam, nobody wins – it’s a story that even your totally crypto-unrelated uncle might pick up and as,k “Hey bud, what happened here?” 

Not a good look. 

The DEX Bloodbath

Solana's DEX scene is bleeding money, with weekly volume dropping 20% to $24.89 billion.

Raydium took the worst hit, dropping 47%, while Meteora somehow managed to grow despite all this chaos – that’s likely rotational capital rather than new money in, though. 

Even the degen gamblers are taking a breather, preferring to take the “wait and see” approach to this situation.

But don’t worry – it gets worse.

March 1st is coming in hot, and that’s when Galaxy, Pantera, and Figure are going to unlock around 11.2 million SOL.

Those tokens came straight from FTX's corpse – nobody knows if they plan to dump, HODL, or use this to mint meme coins of their own (okay, that last one is unlikely, but who really had the President of Argentina launching one on their bingo card?)

The unlock size makes the LIBRA disaster look like pocket change by comparison, which exactly what we don’t need if you’re long SOL.

Market Mood Turned Sour

DEX traders are running for the hills as it seems the meme coin party is getting shut down by regulators worldwide by regulators from various jurisdictions. 

Those institutional bags from the FTX auction are about to get a lot lighter, but that might not stop the dumping.

Between Dubai's crackdown and Argentina's scandal, Solana's reputation is taking body shots.

And it shows, with trading volume down 46% from December, active wallets dropped by a third, and even the NFT degens spending a bit more time touching grass.

Silver Lining Ahead?

Solana's tech still smokes the competition, and the ecosystem has survived worse hits than this.

Remember the FTX collapse? Solana was much younger and unestablished at that time, and it navigated those turbulent times nimbly.

Smart money knows SOL isn't going anywhere – transaction speeds and costs still make Ethereum look like dial-up internet.

And new projects keep building through the blood – launches may have slowed, but they haven’t stopped.

While institutional players haven't bailed yet, that March unlock is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.

So, more than likely, Solana will survive – so the question becomes when we’ll see that inevitable turnaround…

SOL Searching

Solana is having its worst month since the Sam Bankman-Fried days – between LIBRA's collapse and 11.2 million tokens coming unlocked, March could get really ugly before things turn around in the spring.

The smart money's watching that $150 support level like hawks, and maybe you should, too.

Just remember: Solana survived FTX, Ethereum killers, and every other catastrophe thrown its way, and it’s always darkest before the dawn.