Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) was trading higher late Wednesday amid expectations of an "epic" end-of-year run for the sixth-largest cryptocurrency.

Solana Beats Bitcoin, Ethereum In Weekly Returns

SOL ran up to $225 earlier in the day, extending a rally that has pushed it to levels not seen in more than seven months.

Notably, SOL has been the best-performing large-cap coin in the last month, outperforming heavyweights like Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) with gains of more than 27%.

The coin's open interest jumped 4% to an all-time high of $15.42 billion, according to Coinglass, suggesting high demand in the derivatives market. 

Moreover, the majority of Binance futures traders with open SOL positions were betting on a price increase.

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What Are The Bullish Catalysts?

The spike comes as Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan predicted strong returns for the coin in the last quarter, citing prospective exchange-traded fund launches and corporate treasury purchases.

“All the ingredients are there for an epic end-of-year run for Solana,” he said.

In a note shared with clients, Hougan stated that high-profile issuers, such as Grayscale, 21Shares and Fidelity have filed spot ETF applications with the SEC, and the agency is expected to decide on these on or before Oct. 10.

He also highlighted the emerging trend of Solana-focused digital asset treasury, specifically mentioning the $1.65 billion raised by Forward Industries, Inc. ( FORD ) through a private offering.

Apart from these catalysts, Hougan expressed confidence in Solana's fundamentals,  pitching it as an "Ethereum competitor."

"Solana's big calling card is that it's able to process significantly more transactions per second than Ethereum, while doing so cheaply (transactions cost