In 2023, the term "Solana" overtook "Ethereum" in Google search interest for the first time, piquing traders' curiosity about the developments in its ecosystem.
Throughout most of the year, Ethereum maintained a higher search popularity compared to Solana. However, this changed in the week of December 17 to December 23, when Solana's search popularity score reached 56, surpassing Ethereum's score of 50. Google Trends data further revealed that between December 24 and December 30, the search interest for Solana peaked at a score of 100, indicating the term's highest popularity.
Geographically, the interest in Solana exceeded that of Ethereum in countries like Spain and the Philippines, while Ethereum continued to lead in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Morocco. People searching for Solana also showed interest in related terms like "bonk" and "tensor". 'Bonk' is a dog-themed memecoin with a significant market capitalization surge of 370% on December 8, while 'Tensor' refers to a Solana-based NFT marketplace, which launched the successful Tensorians NFT series.
The surge in Solana’s price likely contributed to this increased interest. On December 20, the market capitalization of Solana's token, SOL, surpassed that of Ripple's XRP. Its price rose by 13.8%, reaching over $82 for the first time since May 2022, thereby overtaking XRP. By December 22, SOL had momentarily become the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surpassing BNB, although BNB reclaimed its position by December 29, with SOL returning to its pre-Christmas price level.
