The Level 1 blockchain, which focuses primarily on stablecoins, continues to face a difficult market environment as its technical capabilities are met with harsh market realities. The native token of the network, which launched into the market with well over $2 billion in total liquidity as well as numerous DeFi integrations, has plummeted in value from its lofty apex. The total transaction capability of the network has been demonized as a significant letdown at around 15 transactions per second, a far cry from the supposed 1,000 transactions per second. However, this token still represents one of the most undervalued tokens on the market, when in comparison to industry stalwart tokens such as Tron, owing to the fundamental architecture of the Plasma token as a payment network. The most recent integration with the NEAR Intents protocol allowed for access to 125+ assets across 25 blockchains.
Will Viability Depend on the Dynamics of Supply as Well as Adoption?
The key to the $XPL run relies upon whether actual transactional demand is able to surpass the substantial token unlocks that have been planned all the way up through 2028. The month of July 2026 is a primary inflection point whereby the US-based participant tokens begin to leave their 12-month regulatory lockup period, potentially creating additional timing pressure onto an already beleaguered market. Other important considerations that are technically oriented include the ongoing need to progress validator decentralization, activate the upcoming bitcoin bridge, and continue multi-stablecoin development efforts that are primary decision drivers in establishing the defensibility of the network. Presently, sentiment analysis suggests that various parties are seeing the development of consolidatory price patterns that have the potential to drive reversal levels, as well as the consistent performance of USDT transactions that are ongoing despite the substantial incentive reductions of over 95% that were implemented within the month of December.