{"id":22121,"date":"2025-03-17T11:41:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T09:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/solana-at-five-from-covid-19-to-the-us-crypto-reserve\/"},"modified":"2025-03-17T11:41:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T09:41:26","slug":"solana-at-five-from-covid-19-to-the-us-crypto-reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/solana-at-five-from-covid-19-to-the-us-crypto-reserve\/","title":{"rendered":"Solana at five: from COVID-19 to the US crypto reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 16 March 2020 Solana\u2019s genesis block was created. Cointelegraph<\/a> recapped five key events in the history of the sixth-largest cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

Over the past five years the blockchain, launched by Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko and co-founder Raj Gokal, has processed more than 408bn transactions, including $987bn on DEXs. Network liveness is maintained by over 1,300 validators.<\/p>\n

\"1-1480\"
Data: X<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Birth in the COVID-19 era<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Solana\u2019s origins trace to late 2017, when Yakovenko released a white paper<\/a> with the Proof-of-History consensus algorithm.<\/p>\n

Its effective \u201cstart of life\u201d came in March 2020, as the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic. The team raised $20m<\/a> through a series of private token sales in July 2019, led by Multicoin Capital.<\/p>\n

The network was dubbed an \u201cEthereum killer\u201d. Twenty months after the TGE<\/span>, at the peak of the 2020\u20132021 bull run, SOL\u2019s capitalisation reached $77.8bn.<\/p>\n

FTX\u2019s collapse<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By the end of 2022 the native coin\u2019s combined market value had plunged 96% from the ATH<\/span>, to $3bn. The drop was exacerbated by the collapse of FTX, which had acquired 58m SOL (~$7.4bn at present).<\/p>\n

On 11 November 2022 the platform filed for bankruptcy. Management continues gradually unlocking coins<\/a> worth hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

2023 marked the start of Solana\u2019s revival, with capitalisation rising nearly 50-fold \u2014 <\/em>from $3bn to more than $140bn by 19 January 2025.<\/p>\n

The memecoin frenzy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In early 2024 the combined market value of several network memecoins such as BONK, WIF, FARTCOIN and PENGU reached several billion dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018meme-token factory\u2019\u201d Pump.fun became one of the most popular crypto platforms for fans of such assets, collecting over $540m in fees over the past 12 months. On some days the daily figure exceeded<\/a> Ethereum\u2019s.<\/p>\n

No Solana memecoin drew more attention than Official Trump (TRUMP)<\/a>, whose capitalisation in January soared to $14.6bn in two days before subsequently falling by ~85%.<\/p>\n

The memecoin frenzy<\/a> lifted the blockchain\u2019s TVL<\/span> to $14.2bn, putting Solana in second place. In the stablecoin rankings the network ranked third after Ethereum and Tron.<\/p>\n

Across its five years the network has suffered repeated outages, halting block production for up to 30 hours. Validators had to restart the blockchain.<\/p>\n

This year a new client, Firedancer<\/a>, is expected as an alternative to QUIC, which failed to process transactions on Solana more than a dozen times.<\/p>\n

Crypto phone<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In May 2023 the team released the first Web3-focused smartphone, Solana Saga. Sales of the Android-based device with a built-in crypto wallet began slowly but surged after the BONK airdrop.<\/p>\n

In September 2024 developers unveiled a new smartphone, Solana Seeker, designed for convenient memecoin trading and reward accrual. Each device includes a unique soulbound token, Seeker Genesis, which grants access to third-party rewards, offers and content across the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s digital-asset fund<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On 6 March 2025 US President Donald Trump signed an order<\/a> providing for the creation of a reserve of altcoins, including SOL. The fund will hold coins confiscated by the Treasury in criminal and civil cases; direct purchases are not envisaged.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing Solana trades at $128.84. Compared with the record $293.31, the price has fallen by 56.2%.<\/p>\n

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Weekly SOL\/USDT chart on Binance. Data: TradingView<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In March the cryptocurrency\u2019s price first in roughly three years fell<\/a> below realised value. Amid a waning memecoin hype<\/a> there has been a sharp decline in the ecosystem\u2019s TVL and Solana\u2019s on-chain revenues.<\/p>\n

Some traders expect<\/a> a potential shift in the SOL\/ETH ratio, as a string of scandals<\/a> around coins such as TRUMP and LIBRA dents the reputation of the \u201cpeople\u2019s cryptocurrency\u201d ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 16 March 2020 Solana\u2019s genesis block was created. Cointelegraph recapped five key events in the history of the sixth-largest cryptocurrency. Over the past five years the blockchain, launched by Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko and co-founder Raj Gokal, has processed more than 408bn transactions, including $987bn on DEXs. Network liveness is maintained by over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1145,1150,1159],"class_list":["post-22121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-market-analysis","tag-news-plus","tag-solana-sol"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"24","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}