SOL Goes Incognito While Volume Checks Out—But Traders Refuse to Leave the Group Chat

Solana's markets are currently stuck in a prolonged "cooling" phase, which in crypto terms means someone's gently placed the price on a ice pack and told it to think about what it's done. Despite this, traders appear to be holding on with the kind of stubborn loyalty that would make a HODLer proud—and frankly, a little concerned for their mental health.

Both Spot and Futures volume charts reveal that trading activity has remained weak for months, the kind of weak that makes you wonder if your trading bot is actually working or just playing video games in the background. Since November 2025, most indicators have stayed firmly in the green "cooling" zone, with lower participation from both spot buyers and derivatives traders—everyone's still around, but nobody's really talking in the group chat.

During this period, SOL's price fell from around $160 to the $80-$90 range, a journey so tragic it would make a Disney villain reconsider their life choices. The biggest drop came in late January to early February, when the token plummeted from about $125 to below $80 faster than a memecoin developer's moral compass. Small recoveries towards $90-$95 followed in March, but volumes stubbornly refused to pick up—turns out buying the dip requires actually having money left to dip with.

Here's the interesting part, and by interesting we mean "mildly concerning but also oddly wholesome": Volumes might be weak, but Solana's Aggregated Open Interest has held relatively stable around the $2.0B-$2.1B range. Traders haven't fully exited the market just yet, because apparently getting rugged once wasn't enough of a learning experience. The positions are still there, loyal to the end like a dog waiting by the door for someone who moved to another chain.

Funding rates were also back in positive territory at around 0.006 at press time, which means long positions seemed to be regaining strength, even if there wasn't enough belief to go around for a genuine bull run. Earlier this month, there was high short pressure, like everyone and their grandmother suddenly discovered the short button. That phase has eased since, with mild optimism being the prevailing mood—the kind where you're cautiously hopeful but still keeping your stop losses suspiciously close.

On the price charts, SOL was stable but not quite strong enough, the crypto equivalent of that