Solana has become the talk of the crypto space once more and this is working in favor of its native SOL token.
In the last 24 hours, the price of the token recorded a rise of 9%, which saw it reach a value of $44.41. Data from CoinGecko shows that it has exploded in value in the last 30 days.
This is because it has recorded a growth of a whopping 88%, which makes it the biggest winner amongst all major crypto tokens.
The rise
According to experts, the rise of Solana should not come as a surprise, even though it is associated with the now-defunct FTX crypto exchange and its disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Solana has been considered a competitor to Ethereum and is focused on becoming the go-to option for on-chain experiences and applications.
Arguments from Ethereum proponents claim that it can offer greater security and stability to users, but Solana has proven to be faster and cheaper.
This is particularly true for anyone interested in using and building games, lending protocols, and other applications that leverage blockchain technology.
Currently, the gas fee on Solana is $0.000522, while the average cost of conducting a transaction on Ethereum is around $6.58.
The adoption
Therefore, it is not surprising that Solana has captured the attention of developers who want to build on the network, along with some prominent names like Shopify and Visa.
Akash Mahendra, the portfolio manager at Yield App, said that a streamlined approach is adopted by Solana, which simplifies the developers’ experience as it emphasizes high base layer throughput.
This was to indicate just how much data the blockchain is capable of processing. He also added that the price of SOL was rising due to institutional interest and major partnerships.
But, it had not been long ago that Solana had developed somewhat of a bad reputation.
FTX
One of the most recognizable and biggest brands in the crypto space, FTX had made heavy investments in Solana.
Co-founder and former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, had been a vocal Solana supporter and the company had invested in several projects related to Solana.
FTX had also co-created Serum, which had been regarded as a foundation of the Solana DeFi space, and introduced a marketplace for Solana NFTs.
When Solana reached its peak back in 2021, its valuation in the DeFi ecosystem stood at $10 billion, while its market cap had been an impressive $78 billion.
Then FTX filed for bankruptcy which had been highly publicized and its Solana holdings were valued at $1 billion. This resulted in the decline of the SOL token.
However, big players still consider the project valuable. Solana Pay, its payment protocol, was integrated with Shopify back in August.
This means that merchants using the e-commerce platform can now accept the stablecoin USDC through Solana.
In September, payments giant Visa also announced that it had opted for the Solana blockchain in pursuit of its stablecoin ambitions.
Investors saw these two moves as bullish and plugged more cash into the project, with things picking up for Solana in the previous month.