Many people only focus on the candlestick charts when looking at cryptocurrencies, unaware that the true factors influencing long-term trends are hidden on the chain. Today, let's set aside macro trends and extract the core data of SOL, letting the numbers speak for themselves.

First, let's look at staking. The staking rate of SOL has soared from 68% before the upgrade to 75%. This may not seem like a big jump, but the signals behind this number are worth analyzing. More importantly, most of these staked tokens are locked for periods exceeding six months. What does this mean? It indicates that a large group of long-term holders are genuinely confident in SOL, not engaging in short-term speculation, but rather locking their tokens to earn stable income.

From the supply and demand perspective, the higher the staking rate, the tighter the circulating supply. As the circulating supply decreases, any inflow of incremental capital will cause the price to react more sensitively. This is a straightforward economic principle—scarcity increases value.

Looking at the ecosystem, the changes are even more dramatic. After the upgrade, the number of development teams on SOL has increased by 120% year-over-year. Many of these new teams have interesting backgrounds—some come from traditional finance, others are veterans from the gaming industry. These cross-sector teams bring their own approaches, making the ecosystem start to look very different.

The most direct manifestation is in the application layer on the chain. Previously, SOL mainly hosted NFTs and blockchain games. Now, institutional-grade DeFi applications are beginning to explode. Take Hyperliquid, for example; they have integrated traditional financial compliance interfaces, and their monthly trading volume can surpass $1 billion. This is not just a number; behind it are real users engaging in real transactions.

There is an even more astonishing data point—SOL now accounts for 53% of the global on-chain fee-based economic activity. What does this mean? It signifies that the market landscape, once dominated by ETH and BTC, is being broken. And this is not superficial hype; real commercial value is taking root.

Next, let's look at user growth. Daily active users on SOL have increased from 800,000 to 1.5 million, and most of these new users are newcomers experiencing Web3 for the first time. What does this indicate? It shows that SOL is no longer just a toy within the community but is penetrating the mainstream market. The influx of new users usually signals that an ecosystem is in an expansion phase, with strong potential for future growth.

Ultimately, those who always sell before a market rally make a critical mistake—they only look at surface-level K-line charts and ignore the most core on-chain data. Prices do not rise out of thin air; every wave of growth is backed by data. Currently, from the perspectives of staking rate, ecosystem activity, and user growth, SOL is telling a story—this chain is getting stronger.