(SOL) generated tremendous hype in 2021, with fans touting its ability to solve the Ethereum blockchain's core problem. Solana, it was promised, would be a cheaper and faster place to handle transactions, a better springboard for decentralized finance, or DeFi, and other smart contract-powered activities.
Then came 2022 and all that pain. Things looked bleak for Solana (and, let's be honest, most of crypto). It didn't help that Sam Bankman-Fried was closely linked to Solana and its SOL token, which sank below $10.
SOL was back in the $20s in October as SBF was on trial. Then, all of a sudden, Solana and SOL turned into just about the hottest things going. SOL is above $100 now for the first time since early 2022 and, at $47 billion, it's the fifth-biggest crypto – and it was briefly fourth-biggest earlier this week.
Market Capitalization | |
|---|---|
Bitcoin (BTC) | $854 billion |
Ethereum (ETH) | $288 billion |
Tether (USDT) | $92 billion |
BNB | $49 billion |
Solana (SOL) | $47 billion |
XRP | $35 billion |
My colleague Danny Nelson cogently summed up recent events this weekend when SOL exceeded $100:
Ethereum remains the leader among layer-1 blockchains that can run smart contracts, aka the bedrock of DeFi. Ethereum has $29 billion of total value locked, a measure of money stashed in a particular blockchain's ecosystem, far exceeding Solana's $1.5 billion, according to DefiLlama data.
But recent events show Solana may be a serious competitor now.
Here's what else is on my mind in this holiday-shortened week:
- A LONG DECADE: The failure amid a hack of Mt. Gox a decade ago was a milestone for the industry, an early sign crypto would need better infrastructure to thrive or, at least, survive. Some 850,000 bitcoins were stolen in that incident, a hoard now worth about $36 billion. All these years later, it appears former customers are starting to get repaid. From CoinDesk's coverage: "The repayment could have some impact on bitcoin prices, due to the sheer volume of the tokens being released, but would not destablize the market, UBS had said in a report earlier this year."
