Solana price fell 7.47% over the last 24 hours, significantly underperforming the broader cryptocurrency market’s 4.89% decline. This sharp retracement extends the token’s 20% weekly loss, pushing it to trade near $100. The move follows a major security breach within the ecosystem and an “Extreme Fear” sentiment reading across the wider sector as Bitcoin fell below $75,000.
Step Finance Breach and Risk-Off Sentiment Drive Selling
A direct negative catalyst emerged on January 31, 2026, when the Solana analytics platform Step Finance suffered a security breach. Attackers compromised treasury wallets, resulting in the theft of 261,854 SOL, valued at approximately $30 million.
The unstaked tokens likely hit the spot market immediately, exerting direct sell pressure on the price. Beyond the immediate financial impact, the incident triggered an 80-93% crash in Step’s native token and damaged investor confidence in the security of Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.
Broader market conditions amplified the downward move. Bitcoin’s descent to its lowest price since April 2025 followed a sharp CME futures gap and $1.6 billion in weekend liquidations. The global market cap is now approximately $2.5 trillion, down roughly $500 billion over the past few weeks. As a high-beta asset, the Solana price amplified these market-wide declines.
Macroeconomic concerns about tighter monetary policy under a new Fed chair nominee have pushed the Fear & Greed Index to 15, reducing risk appetite for speculative digital assets and overshadowing recent network activity.
Solana Price Slips Below Key Levels as Downside Risks Expand
The breach of the $100 psychological level has shifted technical focus toward deeper demand zones. Ali Charts highlights that once SOL trades beneath $103, the next major concentration of historical buying interest sits near $63. That level stands out in URPD data as the largest remaining cluster below the current price, suggesting thinner support between the present levels and that zone. In practical terms, bids appear sparse until the low-$60s, increasing the risk of a faster downside move if selling pressure persists.
GGG Trades frames the broader structure as one in which counter-trend bounces remain possible but unreliable. His chart points to a potential reaction around $75, though he notes uncertainty about whether that area would mark a durable bottom. The same analysis adds that if Bitcoin were to slide toward $60,000, Solana could extend into a much deeper drawdown, with price zones between $30 and $46 coming into play.
Harmonic Trader focuses on the weekly pattern that recently completed a bullish bat formation. After reaching the long-awaited $105 target, the market has started to unwind. One remaining scenario within that structure allows for a flush lower to retest the prior pattern base near $47.57. He characterizes this as a high-possibility outcome following yesterday’s low near $95, even if it appears uncomfortable for bulls.
For now, Solana price remains in a defensive posture, with traders watching whether $95 can stabilize the tape or whether momentum continues to pull price toward the deeper support clusters highlighted by on-chain and pattern analysis.
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