Stephanie Douse 
Solana amassed bigger gains than other coins which have seen their values surge this week. We have discussed some possible reasons.
SOL, the eighth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is up about 10% in 24 hours, from around $96 to $103 sometime today.
Compared to other major coins, only Cardano and Dogecoin saw similar gains of 9% and 6%, respectively.
The rise of Solana comes shortly after Krafton, the publisher of popular battle royale game, PUBG, announced that it will be collaborating with Solana Labs to develop blockchain games on the network.
But many other companies have recently announced and launched projects on the SOL blockchain.
Gaming startup Web3 Block Tackle announced on Tuesday that it is developing a SOL based NFT skate game, and Coinbase recently added support for Solana tokens to its wallet browser extension.
Crypto non-profit organization The Giving Block also announced today that it has added Solana blockchain support to its platform, allowing donors to donate to over 1,400 charities using SOL.
Through The Giving Block platform, SOL holders can contribute to worthy causes focused on a variety of initiatives such as humanitarian aid in Ukraine, education, animal welfare or environmental protection.
On the investment side, asset management firm Grayscale launched a non-Ethereum altcoin fund this week, which includes 24% of SOL.
The fund also contains around 24% Cardano, while the other coins in the fund are each between 4% and 16%.
Grayscale also has its own SOL Trust for those who wish to focus solely on SOL.
In the DeFi space, Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) Orca just announced Whirlpools, a new feature still in beta that allows traders to pool liquidity for better financial returns.
However, only Orcanaut NFT holders will have access to the Whirlpools Beta, which will remain in early access for at least two weeks.
Solana’s struggles
Although the token has been in the news a lot lately, SOL is still a long way off its all-time high of $260, which it hit in November 2021.
This year, SOL has struggled to regain its former value but has been fluctuating between $80 and $100.