February 2024 was a blockbuster month for the Solana blockchain, with its native SOL token price hitting new highs and ecosystem activity exploding. Let's dive into the key highlights:

SOL Token Rockets to $130 High

The SOL token kicked off 2024 on a tear, soaring to a new all-time high of $130 in February. This represented over 30% price appreciation from January's $98 close. Fueling the rally was a perfect storm of catalysts - booming total value locked (TVL) on Solana DeFi protocols, a flood of new users and projects joining the ecosystem, and rising institutional investor interest.

Solana TVL Tops $2.5 Billion

One of the biggest drivers of SOL's price surge was the rapid growth of the Solana DeFi ecosystem. Total value locked across all Solana DeFi protocols blew past $2.5 billion in February, up over 50% from the prior month. Leading the charge were innovative new lending platforms like Helius, which secured a $50 million funding round, and yield optimizers attracting billions in liquidity.

Memecoin Mania Brings Viral Growth

February also saw Solana catch memecoin fever, with tongue-in-cheek projects like Bonk (BONK), Wizard Inu (WIF), and SmogCoin (SMOG) going viral. The latter project was particularly impressive, amassing over 30,000 holders within 48 hours of trading. This frenzy introduced Solana to a new cohort of retail investors and further amplified ecosystem growth.

Non-Stop Ecosystem Expansion

Beyond DeFi and memecoins, the Solana ecosystem saw significant expansion across verticals. The Solana Foundation announced a new $10 million Web3 hackathon while Solana Mobile's Chapter 2 smartphone racked up over 100,000 pre-orders in under a month. The burgeoning Solana NFT market also hit new milestones, with over $5 billion in all-time sales and 3.8 million transactions in February alone.

With developer activity accelerating, institutional capital pouring in, and retail investors piling on, February's momentum seems likely to carry Solana to even greater heights in the months ahead. The race for blockchain scalability supremacy is heating up.