Solana extends 2-day surge to 72% as investors cheer the altcoin's recent DeFi ventures

• Solana jumped as high as $74.89 Tuesday, extending its two-day surge to 72% and notching another all-time high.
• The altcoin has seen recent activity tied to capital inflows and an NFT launch.
• Solana is now the 10th largest cryptocurrency by marketcap with over $19 billion in circulation.

Solana jumped to as high as $74.89 Tuesday, extending its two-day surge to 72% and notching another all-time high.

The altcoin has come into the spotlight recently as a number of projects based on Solana's blockchain have received capital inflows. Mango Markets, a decentralized exchange on Solana, raised $70 million in a token sale last week.

Seth Ginns, a managing partner at CoinFund, said the coin also saw a lot of activity tied to the launch of a popular NFT collection called the Degenerate Ape Academy. The digital art collection sold on a marketplace on the Solana network over the weekend. More broadly, Solana has been attracting DeFi developers and capital, he said.

"It's increasingly seen as one of the go-to blockchains for developers," said Ginns.

Solana is also home to Serum, a decentralized exchange that was founded by crypto-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.

The coin pared gains Monday morning to hover around $67.41. Despite the pullback, Solana is still up roughly 66% over the last week, outpacing larger crypto peers including bitcoin and ether.

Retail traders on Stocktwits cheered Solana's run-up, with one user forecasting the coin will be "the next big crypto." Solana was the number 2 "most watched" ticker on the sentiment tracking site Tuesday morning.

With a total market value of $19 billion the coin is the 10th largest cryptocurrency in circulation, according to Coinmarketcap data.