Solana (SOL) continues to impress market observers with its high throughput and low-latency performance, solidifying its position as the leading alternative to Ethereum for high-frequency applications. On February 16, 2026, Solana's network activity has hit new highs, driven by a resurgence in NFT minting volumes and a thriving decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem that emphasizes speed and low costs. The successful deployment of recent network upgrades has largely addressed previous concerns regarding outages, restoring confidence among institutional developers and retail users alike. The price of SOL has reacted positively to these fundamental improvements, exhibiting strong momentum against both the US Dollar and Bitcoin. The ecosystem's mobile-first strategy, integrated through specialized hardware and software wallets, has onboarded a new wave of retail users, creating a sticky user base. However, investors remain cautious about the token's aggressive inflation schedule and the volume of tokens unlocking from early venture rounds. Despite these supply-side headwinds, the sheer demand for blockspace on Solana is currently absorbing the selling pressure, keeping the asset in a distinct uptrend relative to other Layer-1 competitors.