The Solana team has been grappling with concerns from network developers regarding the association with Bankman-Fried throughout the year. Bankman-Fried, who is set to unlock approximately $2 billion worth of SOL in the coming years at current prices, has left the community curious about his next move. Recent developments within the Solana ecosystem have sparked interest, and we are taking a closer look.
Solana network, while offering the same benefits as other smart contract-enabled blockchain ecosystems such as Ethereum, Tron, Avalanche, and BNB Chain, stands out with its unique consensus, technology, and tokenomics developed by San Francisco-based Solana Labs. The team is continuously working on applications and tokens, decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and NFT marketplaces. Solana’s market dominance is currently at 2.13%, slightly lower than the record high set in November 2021.
The excitement generated by new projects within the Solana ecosystem continues to inspire certain segments of the market. Even after a 50% correction this week, the network’s largest memecoin project, BONK, has managed to gain attention by providing investors with a 10,000% return over the last two months.
The BONK frenzy has significantly boosted sales of Solana-branded smartphones, thanks to a 30 million BONK airdrop event worth $550, which is nearly equivalent to the retail value of the phone. This airdrop has played a pivotal role in driving momentum for the phone sales.
Amidst these developments, Solana’s largest staking protocol, Jito, conducted a $165 million airdrop event earlier this month, distributing its native token JTO to loyal users. Following the event, JTO’s price surged, adding approximately $300 million in market value to the Solana ecosystem. Expectations of more airdrops scaled to Solana’s activities have helped volumes within the ecosystem reach the highest levels of the year. The total value locked (TVL) in the Solana ecosystem has risen from $300 million in September to $1 billion currently.
However, this increase generally draws attention to the rising price of SOL; there are currently 14 million SOL locked in the network, which is one-third of the 21 million SOL staked at the beginning of the year and 25% less than in September.