Solana 2021: It Was a Very Good Year
Solana hit its all-time high in November of 2021 when it hit $260 per token. The crypto market was booming with Bitcoin over $60K. The Solana NFT market was on a bullish run with projects like DeGods – which minted in October of 2021 – leading the pack. Then the crypto winter of 2022 – with its cold recession winds and cracked supply chains – happened. It wasn’t cryptos fault, but the macroeconomy plummeted downward, and with it every asset across the board. This included digital assets such as Bitcoin and Solana. The crypto winter caused the crypto markets to tank. Solana went to about $37 per token at the low of the crypto winter. And then the FTX disaster happened. All of crypto was taken down in the FTX vortex, but none worse than Solana.
Solana and the FTX Contagion
Solana has close links with FTX, and the hedge fund controlled by FTX, Alameda Research. In short, FTX and Alameda had been provided large positions in the cryptocurrency for capital. The market was aware of the huge positions held by FTX. Once these FTX controlled entities went bankrupt, their Solana positions had to be liquidated. This led to a massive sell-off in the cryptocurrency. However, the selling had nothing to do with the quality of the cryptocurrency itself. The extreme sell-pressure was exclusively caused by the large Solana positions held by FTX and its related entities. Liquidation of those positions destroyed the “supply/demand” balance and saw prices plummet to a low of $8.28 in late December 2022.
Bonk: We Got Bonked
In the new year, the Solana community had little to celebrate. As discussed above, the crypto winter and the FTX fiasco, led Solana into the fires of the bear market. Then two events occurred that changed the current trajectory of Solana. First, was the tweet by the founder of ethereum, Vitalik Buterin on December 29, 2022. This tweet propelled the cryptocurrency from the low $9 range to at or about $10. Since that time, the token has been on a bullish run, and currently sits at or around $16.50 per token as of January 13, 2023. This Buterin tweet was important because he is so well-respected in the crypto community. Indeed, he is one of the “founding fathers” of the crypto movement.
Buterin’s December 29, 2022 Tweet regarding Solana.
Second, the Solana community was reinvigorated with the airdrop of the dog meme token Bonk. This dog coin is a token “for the people, by the people with 50% of the total supply airdropped to the Solana community.” The Bonk airdrop created a palpable buzz in the Solana community. It was a reminder of the depth and power of the Solana community, as the Bonk coin appreciated as much as 3K%.
Bonk.
The Future of Solana
Solana’s future could be quite fruitful. The cryptocurrency has seen $98 million in NFT sales in the last 30 days, an increase of 46%. Further, it is well-positioned in the area of NFTs, Web3, and gaming. For example, Solana is currently the No. 2 player in the NFT market measured by sales volume.
There is a massive worldwide tour for Solana developers planned for 2023. Also, many high-profile product launches in 2023 with the coming of the Mobile Strategy, combined with Pay strategy, and first of its kind Web3 payment system enabled with a “crypto phone.” Also, Solana will also soon allow for compressed NFTs. These dynamic NFTs will allow creators the ability to mint 100 million NFTs for just 50 SOL. This would allow game studios can mint every in-game item or character as NFTs.
NFT Sales Volume for the last 30 days from December 12, 2022 to January 12, 2023.
And We Thank You for a Real Good Time!
Continue to check out our blog post for more news on NFTs, our Awk Monk NFT Project and other helpful resources. Also, don’t forget to check out our Ultimate NFT Monkey Guide, where we talk everything NFT Monkey related.
