The social media buzz around Solana (SOL) has reportedly reached a fever pitch, buoyed by GameStop’s $1.3 billion Bitcoin (BTC) play and BlackRock’s recent expansion onto the blockchain.

This surge in institutional interest has fueled overwhelmingly positive sentiment toward Solana, with Santiment reporting a near-record high 18:1 positive-to-negative sentiment ratio.

Institutional Backing Boosts Solana’s Appeal

In a March 26 post on X, Santiment noted:

With news that institutions like GameStop and BlackRock are integrating Bitcoin and launching yield-bearing tokenized treasury funds on Solana, cryptos #5 market cap asset is seeing an astounding level of bullish sentiment pouring in on social media.

According to the analytics platform, the high level of positivity is driven by the belief that institutional backing could speed up Solana’s adoption and strengthen its market position.

Many see BlackRock’s decision to integrate Solana into its tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, as a major endorsement of the blockchain’s capabilities. Since its launch in March 2024, BUIDL has grown to $1.7 billion, commanding the tokenized U.S. treasuries market and outpacing rivals like Ondo and Franklin Templeton.

GameStop has also dipped its feet into the crypto pool, announcing plans to raise $1.3 billion to buy Bitcoin. The move mirrors Strategys aggressive BTC accumulation, further validating digital assets as institutional-grade collateral.

Meme Coin Frenzy Contributes to Solana’s Growth

Apart from institutional influence, Solana’s meme coin space seems to have been revitalized after a brief lull partly occasioned by the LIBRA debacle, in which investors lost more than $250 million after insiders cashed out early, causing the token’s value to plummet 85%.

Pump.fun, which recently launched a native decentralized exchange (DEX) to compete with Raydium, recorded more than 34,000 meme coin launches on March 24, dwarfing the 20,190 created at the beginning of the month.

The sparkling performance of the newly launched meme coin Ghiblification (GHIBLI) has further brightened the space. Inspired by a wave of Studio Ghibli-style images shared by ChatGPT users on social media, the token shot up by an eye-popping 35,000% at one point since going live.

Meanwhile, SOL’s price has responded positively to the changing sentiment. The asset was trading at $138.60 at the time of this writing, which, despite a 4.4% pullback in the last 24 hours, reflects a 3.8% gain over the past week.

As things stand, SOL is outperforming both BTC and the broader crypto market, with the number one cryptocurrency by market cap up just 2% in seven days.