Why is Solana Back in Stardom?

Solana, the proof of stake blockchain focused on developing scalable infrastructure for decentralized applications (dapps), is clearly on the rise and becoming, once again, a darling of the DeFi sector. Since the start of January, the price of SOL, its native cryptocurrency, has risen over %430, with clear signs that its rise will be consistent.

Solana’s vision is to become the preeminent platform for global finance with an infrastructure that does not have the speed and throughput limitations of Ethereum. However, throughout the 2022 crypto bear m arket, Solana faced a number of setbacks, the most prominent of which was its close association with Sam Bankman-Fried’s failed FTX. Both FTX and its research arm, Alameda, had sizable positions in Solana. FTX, Alameda, and Solana had collaborated on several projects that included the launch of the Serum Exchange, which was a DEX for trading crypto assets on Solana. Another setback was a sharp decline in SOL’s price and TVL throughout 2022. From January 2022 to Jan 2023, SOL’s price declined by more than 94%, with its TVL dropping almost 97%. However, the conclusion of SBF’s trial brought much-needed relief to Solana and ended its association with the failed crypto exchange.

Solana is poised to enter 2024 with a strong market position. With a market cap of $30.3 billion and a TVL of $931.34 million, Solana is certain to continue its current growth trajectory. For one, it has a strong team of developers, which had an impressive growth of 83% in 2023. Solana’s dev team stands at over 2000, which puts it in a very strong position among the leading blockchains. Solana uses the Rust programming language, which, unlike Ethereum’s Solidity, was in the market before Solana’s birth and used by tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Another strong feature of Solana is its EVM compatibility. Ethereum, the largest smart contract development platform, uses the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to run smart contracts on a global network of computers. EVM compatibility is essential to interacting with the Ethereum ecosystem seamlessly. With the ability to process 65,000 transactions per second (TPS), the Solana EVM offers great speed and scalability, which translates into savings in time, transaction, and development costs. Solana’s network also remains well funded.

VanEck, the global investment management company, projects Solana to become one of the top three blockchains in terms of market cap, TVL, and active users in 2024. With strong technical performance and support from the financial and development communities, Solana represents an attractive option for investors. Solana’s strong DeFi ecosystem is also a testament to the market’s growing confidence in its platform.

Jupiter is a Solana DEX aggregator, developed specifically to facilitate efficient and seamless trading across various decentralized exchanges on the Solana blockchain network. Jupiter acts as a one-stop platform and combines liquidity from multiple Solana-based DEXes, offering users access to improved trade execution by sourcing the bes t prices and reducing slippage. Jupiter's objective is to streamline the decentralized trading experience on Solana and offer improved liquidity, reduced fees, and better trade execution.

Solana also had a highly successful staking protocol launch with JTO, Jito's token. In early December, JTO hit $1.1 billion in trading volume within just 24 hours of its release. It also had a token airdrop of 4 billion JUP, an Ethereum token for the Jupiter project. Jito enables users to stake their Solana (SOL) tokens while maintaining liquidity. It allows token holders to earn staking rewards without locking their assets in a staking contract.

While Jito focuses on enabling users to stake SOL tokens and maintain liquidity, Jupiter is focused on aggregating liquidity across various decentralized exchanges on Solana to facilitate optimized trading.

Solana is available on Bitget, one of the most trusted crypto exchanges in the Canadian market. With over 20 million users, Bitget offers over 480 coins with low and competitive trading fees. It also offers zero-fee spot trading for all users worldwide, enabling traders to trade across 30 chains that are aggregated from the most trusted DEXs, giving users access to a wide range of trading pairs and new projects. Moreover, Bitget has one of the lowest trading fees in the Canadian market, offering Canadian users a spot trading fee of 0.1%, with BGB token holders having the luxury of a 20% discount in fees.

Established in 2018, Bitget is the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange that offers copy trading services as one of its key features. Serving over 20 million users in more than 100 countries and regions, the exchange is committed to helping users trade smarter by providing a secure, one-stop trading solution. Bitget inspires individuals to embrace crypto through collaborations with credible partners, including legendary Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi and official eSports events organizer PGL.