Solana’s 5th birthday: From pandemic origins to US crypto stockpile

Layer-1 blockchain Solana is celebrating its 5th twelvemonth since its mainnet motorboat successful 2020 — becoming 1 of the biggest chains by transaction enactment and 1 of fewer prime cryptocurrencies included successful a projected US integer plus stockpile. 

Since the archetypal Solana artifact was built connected March 16, 2020, the web has processed much than 408 cardinal transactions and astir $1 trillion worthy of worth connected decentralized exchanges — establishing itself arsenic 1 of the industry’s starring layer-1 blockchains.

Source: Solana

Here are immoderate of the Solana ecosystem’s astir notable milestones since it was launched by Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko and Solana co-founder Raj Gokal to the nationalist successful 2020.

Solana was calved conscionable arsenic the COVID-19 pandemic hit

While Solana’s origins tin beryllium traced backmost to precocious 2017 erstwhile Yakovenko released a achromatic insubstantial outlining a timekeeping method for blockchains called “Proof of History,” but Solana wasn’t launched until March 2020 — close arsenic the satellite started to enact exigency measures against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The high-speed, low-cost furniture 1 Solana blockchain motorboat was assisted by crypto-focused task superior steadfast Multicoin Capital, starring a financing circular for Solana, which brought successful astir $20 cardinal worthy of backstage token income successful July 2019.

Source: OKX

Additional backing poured successful soon after, and wrong 20 months of launching, Solana was hailed arsenic a imaginable “Ethereum killer” arsenic it soared to a $77.8 cardinal marketplace headdress astatine the highest of the 2020-2021 bull cycle.

Solana deed hard by 2022 carnivore market, FTX illness — but bounced back

The 2022 carnivore market, coupled with the catastrophic collapse of crypto speech FTX, tanked Solana’s marketplace headdress to $3 cardinal — a whopping 96% autumn from its erstwhile highest — by precocious 2022.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s erstwhile steadfast purchased astir 58 cardinal Solana tokens — presently worthy $7.4 cardinal — from Solana Labs and the Solana Foundation and was “by acold the astir serious” furniture 1 that FTX was helping scale, Fortune said successful an April 2022 report.

FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy connected Nov. 11, 2022, and is inactive successful the process of unlocking hundreds of millions of dollars worthy of staked Solana tokens from FTX’s wallets. Solana’s terms fell to $8.30 connected Dec. 29, 2022.

Despite the setback, 2023 marked the commencement of Solana's awesome comeback, which saw its marketplace headdress emergence astir 50-fold from $3 cardinal to implicit $140 cardinal by Jan. 19, 2025.

Memecoin craze takes Solana adoption to the adjacent level

One of the biggest reasons down Solana’s comeback was the crypto memecoin craze that took spot betwixt precocious 2023 and 2024 — a $100 cardinal marketplace that Solana dominated.

Several Solana memecoins specified arsenic Bonk (BONK), Dogwifhat (WIF), Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) and Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) roseate to multibillion-dollar marketplace caps successful aboriginal 2024 — astir the clip Solana memecoin launchpad Pump.fun became 1 of the astir fashionable crypto platforms for memecoin lovers. 

Pump.fun unsocial has raked successful implicit $540 cardinal successful gross implicit the past 12 months and adjacent surpassed Ethereum implicit 24-hour intervals astatine immoderate points.

Solana is location to galore of the largest memecoins by marketplace cap. Source: CoinGecko

No Solana memecoin, however, drew much attraction than the Official Trump (TRUMP) token launched by now-US President Donald Trump’s interior ellipse connected Jan. 17 — which soared to a $14.6 cardinal marketplace wrong 2 days earlier it came crashing down.

The TRUMP memecoin concisely pushed Solana decentralized concern (DeFi) full worth locked to $14.2 billion, trailing lone Ethereum, DefiLlama data shows. 

The Solana blockchain has besides go the 3rd largest adopter for stablecoins down Ethereum and Tron.

Solana unveils the archetypal large crypto phone

In May 2023, Solana released the archetypal large crypto phone, called “Solana Saga.”

Sales for the Android instrumentality with the built-in crypto wallet started dilatory but skyrocketed aft a 30 cardinal BONK airdrop enticed memecoin enthusiasts to marque a purchase.

Solana besides unveiled a newer, shinier Solana “Seeker” smartphone past September to amended facilitate memecoin trading and accrue token rewards.

While astir reviewers accidental the Solana phones deficiency the method capabilities of an iPhone oregon Google Pixel, Solana has seen implicit 140,000 presales for the 2 products.

The Solana Seeker telephone is presently priced astatine $500.

Hardware specifications of the Solana Seeker phone. Source: Solana Mobile

Solana, however, has besides been plagued with respective web outages implicit its five-year span — halting artifact accumulation for 20 hours successful immoderate instances. 

Solana validators person been forced to restart the web connected respective occasions erstwhile web enactment surged.

A caller autarkic validator lawsuit called Firedancer is scheduled to spell unrecorded connected Solana’s mainnet sometime successful 2025 to code Solana’s lawsuit diverseness woes. It has been touted arsenic a superior solution to “QUIC” — a Google-developed information transportation protocol that has failed to process transactions connected Solana implicit a twelve times.

Solana acceptable to beryllium included successful Trump’s Digital Asset Stockpile

The Trump medication says it volition see Solana successful the Digital Asset Stockpile, which it confirmed done an executive bid connected March 7. It is the youngest cryptocurrency connected the list.

The Digital Asset Stockpile volition initially usage cryptocurrency forfeited successful authorities transgression cases.

Related: Solana connection to chopped ostentation complaint by up to 80% fails to pass

The US doesn’t look to clasp Solana, according to crypto analytics steadfast Arkham Intelligence. However, the White House said it would implicit an audit of crypto plus holdings.

Trump initially announced that Solana would go a US reserve plus connected March 2.

Source: Donald Trump

However, helium aboriginal established a Bitcoin-only reserve and the Digital Asset Stockpile, which looks similar it volition see Solana successful summation to Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and Cardano (ADA).

Solana is presently priced astatine $128.17 — the sixth-largest cryptocurrency with a marketplace headdress of $64.5 billion. Solana is down 56% from its all-time precocious arsenic the broader marketplace continues to navigate through recession fears and weakened marketplace sentiment of late.

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