Etherscan, the Ethereum blockchain explorer, has started 2024 with strategic acquisitions, including the purchase of Solscan, a leading block explorer for the Solana ecosystem, on January 3rd. The acquisition is described as a collaborative merger aimed at expanding Etherscan’s blockchain data services across multiple networks.
Solscan, established in 2021, serves over three million monthly users and boasts a community page with more than 23,000 subscribers. It offers a data platform with detailed address, token, and transaction data, as well as APIs, dashboards, and NFT metadata, similar to features familiar to Etherscan users.
Post-acquisition, Etherscan emphasizes its commitment to providing unbiased and equal access to blockchain data. The company also plans to integrate additional features between different explorers and offer enhanced support in the future. Etherscan CEO and co-founder Matthew Tan praised the Solscan team for their expertise in delivering detailed insights and analysis, aligning with Etherscan’s mission to make blockchain data accessible and user-friendly.
The acquisition by the Etherscan team coincides with a significant price increase for Solana’s native cryptocurrency. Following a market value surge that briefly surpassed Binance Chain’s BNB, Solana’s token experienced a 60% rise over the last 30 days, reaching over $100 for the first time since the end of 2022.
According to CoinGecko, at the time of writing, Solana was trading at $107.70, a 0.96% increase over the past 24 hours. SOL is currently the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market value, approximately worth $47 billion.
Industry observers continue to speculate whether SOL could one day overtake Ethereum. One reason cited is Solana’s brief surpassing of Ethereum in daily decentralized exchange (DEX) transaction volumes at the end of December. Solana also outperformed Ethereum in global Google searches, scoring 56 to Ethereum’s 50.