By
Svetlana Soroka
May 11th, 2024
The Solana blockchain has been on a solid growth trajectory amid rising demand from DeFi protocols along with the announcement for the new GameFi ecosystem.
Ethereum-competitor Solana (SOL) is now the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in the world. Solana attained this milestone on Sunday, November 7, when its valuations soared all the way to $75 billion.
Over its unstoppable bull run over the last three months, the price of SOL touched its all-time high of $260. With this, Solana has also unseated crypto giants like Tether (USDT), Cardano (ADA), and XRP. Currently, only Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB) are above Solana in the top ten list.
Since the beginning of 2021, the SOL price has appreciated 160 times or a staggering 15900%. This makes Solana one of the fastest-appreciating altcoins in the entire crypto space.
The Solana ecosystem has also registered massive growth in terms of DeFi adoption. As of now, the total value locked (TVL) of all DeFi protocols on the Solana blockchain has crossed a staggering $15 billion. Furthermore, the Solana blockchain has the capacity to process 71,000 transactions per second (TPS) at a very low gas fee.
Entry of Solana (SOL) to Web 3.0 and a $100 Million Fund
The recent price rally for SOL comes amid its Web 3.0 gaming development through its venture capital arm Solana Ventures. Last Friday, Solana Ventures in partnership with other platforms announced a $100 million GameFi ecosystem fund.
The new ecosystem fund potentially aims to merge blockchain and cryptocurrency with the traditional gaming sector. The GameFi ecosystem fund is a $100 million fund launched by Solana Ventures in partnership with Lightspeed Venture Partners and derivatives exchange FTX.
The companies noted that the funds will focus on investing in technology companies, gaming studios, and other projects at the “intersection of gaming and blockchain”.
With this major move, Solana is also attracting other desktop and mobile video gaming developers to build their games atop their public blockchain networks. This will provide an additional boost to the SOL blockchain adoption.
With a $100 billion in annual revenue, the global gaming market could provide the fuel to bring “the next billion users to Web 3.0”. With all these developments in place, Solana can pose a serious competition to Ethereum.
As of now, Ethereum still has a lion’s share when it comes to catering to the DeFi and NFT ecosystem. But players like Solana and others are quickly gaining traction amid the rising ETH gas fee.