Solana SOL +9.23% has been outperforming all other blue-chip cryptocurrencies, with a 50% gain in October and rising over 250% year-to-date, according to CoinGecko data. Some analysts think the altcoin's rally is a price correction from a long period of undervaluation.

CoinShares Research Analyst Max Shannon told The Block that solana is hitching a ride on bitcoin's move higher, and that "it's rally is primarily hype driven." YouHodler Chief of Markets Ruslan Lienkha said "the recent surge looks more like a price recovery as the token was undervalued for a long period."

"Solana experienced a dramatic drop in value after FTX blew up and the token missed an upward trend in the crypto market from the beginning of this year," Lienkha told The Block.

Solana has fallen by over 7% in the past 24 hours, changing hands for $39,41 at 1:30 p.m. ET, according to CoinGecko.

Solana's strong developer fundamentals

Ryze Labs Founding and Managing Partner Matthew Graham pointed to strong developer fundamentals behind the layer 1.

"From day one, Solana set out on a mission to gain mindshare among builders who would launch unique platforms and products. Price action reflects the work put in, from engineering to community development, that has made Solana a vibrant ecosystem full of useful products, " Graham told The Block. The Ryze Labs managing partner added that he "does not see Solana's momentum slowing down."

CoinShares' Max Shannon still sees Solana's metrics as muted, "with flat growth from transactions, TVL, fees, revenues and developer counts in the year-to-date."

"Savvy investors may be banking on the quiet developments and implementation of isolated fee markets, the introduction of Jito-Solana to combat spam transactions, and the development of Firedancer as an independent validator client enhancing its stability, performance, and scalability as a network. Otherwise, we suspect the 94% decline from peak to trough made it an attractive proposition regardless," Shannon added.