Solana climbs 1% as ARK Invest buys 3iQ SOL staking ETF

Solana rose 0.98% to $76.00 on Aug. 18 as ARK Invest bought 7,115 shares of the 3iQ SOL staking ETF.

The purchases were split across two ARK funds — 3,830 shares through the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and 3,285 through the ARK Blockchain & Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) — according to ARK's daily trade disclosures. The buys extend ARK's recent accumulation of the fund, which it also purchased last week.

The purchases come as spot Solana ETFs have recorded zero inflows since Aug. 12, per SoSoValue data, though SOL products led all crypto ETFs with $10.26 million in weekly inflows between Aug. 10 and Aug. 14. SOL trading volume rose 25% to $1.38 billion on Aug. 18, as of 07:08 UTC.

Solana trades within a cup and handle pattern on the daily chart, with a close above $76.00 resistance — a level not cleared since July 20 — potentially opening a path to $83. The RSI reading of 53 suggests momentum still leans bullish. A failed breakout could see SOL test the lower Bollinger band at $72.00.

ARK's broader crypto accumulation

ARK also bought 191,671 shares of Block (XYZ) across ARKK and ARKF on the same day, plus 189,796 shares of Securitize, the tokenization firm behind BlackRock's BUIDL fund, which has tokenized more than $5 billion in assets in the third quarter of 2026. The combined purchases show ARK's conviction in digital asset infrastructure even as spot crypto ETF demand softens.

Network activity weakens

Data from DefiLlama shows Solana's total value locked has dropped from $8.19 billion to $4.85 billion. In SOL terms, TVL fell from 75 million SOL on June 7 to 63.84 million SOL, suggesting users have withdrawn 12 million SOL from DeFi protocols on Solana. Stablecoin market cap on the network also declined from $16.4 billion on July 25 to $15.3 billion.

Solana DEX volume has collapsed roughly 80% from its April 2026 peak to about $63 billion in July, one of its weakest months in over a year. Exchange netflow flipped positive, rising to about $3.11 million on Aug. 12 and then to roughly $4.79 million on Aug. 13, suggesting holders may be preparing to sell. The broader DeFi market shows similar weakness, with total TVL across all blockchains dropping from $114 billion to $75 billion.

The divergence between ARK's institutional conviction and weakening on-chain fundamentals creates a mixed picture for SOL. If ARK's backing translates into sustained ETF inflows, SOL could break the $76.00 barrier. But with network activity declining and exchange inflows rising, the path of least resistance may remain lower until broader crypto market conditions improve.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.