Solana

Solana is an open source project implementing a new, high-performance, permissionless blockchain. Solana is a general purpose blockchain similar to Ethereum. End user applications as of now include decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFT), marketplaces, games, and more. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko published a whitepaper describing Proof of History, a technique that would become critical to Solana's blockchain infrastructure, in Nov. 2017. 

Co-founder Greg Fitzgerald, who had worked with Yakovenko at Qualcomm, began prototyping the open source implementation of the whitepaper. It was published under the name Silk in 2018. 

After starting the company under the name Loom, Yakovenko, Fitzgerald, and other co-founders rebranded to Solana. Solana launched on Mainnet Beta in March 2020.

Solana was built to facilitate the development of scalable, user-friendly decentralized apps with low costs and high speeds for transactions.

Solana believes its unique blockchain architecture that combines the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and its own proof of history mechanism is the key to achieving these goals.

Proof of history works almost like a cryptographic timestamp that proves that an event has occurred at a specific time. It enables the blockchain to work fast while maintaining security and decentralization.

There are about 304 million SOL in circulation as of November 2021. Solana has an initial inflation rate of 8%, which will decrease by 15% a year until it reaches a long-term inflation rate of 1.5%. SOL is Solana’s native token.

Solana competes with other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and Avalanche to host crypto projects such as NFTs, decentralized exchanges, and gaming. 

Developers and users flocked from Ethereum to Solana due to high transaction costs, but many could gravitate back towards Ethereum if it manages to lower costs, which could happen as a result of the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade and layer 2 rollups. 

Solana.com
Docs.solana.com/history
Forums.solana.com

Bitcoin

Fantom

A popular crypto strategist says Bitcoin (BTC) and two Ethereum (ETH) rivals, Solana (SOL) and Fantom (FTM), have more room to run. Pseudonymous analyst Altcoin Sherpa tells his 190,500 Twitter followers that Bitcoin is likely to surge at least 25% from its $24,007 value at time of writing.

Bitcoin, Solana and Additional Ethereum Rival Have Higher To Go, Says Top Crypto Analyst – Here Are His Targets

The Kin Foundation has announced the launch of a Solana-based on-ramp for app developers that requires minimal coding called Kinetic.

Kin Foundation debuts Solana-based on-ramp tool for app developers

Ethereum

A trader who continues to build a large following with his timely altcoin calls says that one of Ethereum's biggest competitors may be following ETH‘s early stages of growth.

Is Solana Following Ethereum's Early Days? Top Trader Compares SOL and ETH, Updates Stance on Crypto Markets

A Solana-based (SOL) decentralized crypto exchange is suing the bad actor behind the alleged $100 million exploit of its network last October. In a new court filing in the Southern District of New York, Mango Markets accuses Avraham Eisenberg of initiating a “brazen and malicious” attack on its platform.

Solana-Based Trading Platform Mango Markets Sues Crypto Trader Behind $100,000,000 Exploit

Friktion is sunsetting its user platform, moving all volts to withdraw-only mode as the Solana DeFi project has seen its TVL tank 97%.

Solana-based DeFi project Friktion shuts down its front end

Marinade Finance will reward users with a total of 160 million marinade tokens for depositing SOL over the next 12 months.

Marinade Finance announces rewards to boost liquid staking on Solana

Pseudonymous Marinade developer Cerba said the effort will bring more legitimacy to mSOL, which is ahead of Lido's Solana LSD token despite that big-name protocol's dominance on Ethereum.

Solana Liquid Staking Tool Marinade Looks to Bolster Its Token Value With Staked SOL Capture

Polygon

Fractal co-founder Justin Kan tells Decrypt that many game developers "want to be on Polygon."

Twitch Co-Founder's Solana Gaming Platform Fractal Expands to Polygon

Jump Crypto is using its high-frequency trading expertise to build a new open-source validator client for Solana known as Firedancer.

Here's how Jump Crypto's Firedancer project aims to optimize Solana for HFT

A widely followed trader says he sees more upside potential for smart contract platform Solana (SOL) and two tokens flying under the radar. Pseudonymous Cantering Clark tells his 158,900 Twitter followers that traders who continue to bet against the Ethereum rival will likely be blown out of their positions by a short squeeze.

Top Crypto Analyst Predicts Bullish Continuations for Solana and Two Under-the-Radar Altcoins

Cardano

Solana rose by as much as 20% Saturday, as crypto markets came alive to start the weekend. The token hit a 12-week high in today's session, breaking out of a key price ceiling in the process. Cardano also rose to its strongest point since November, with the global cryptocurrency market cap up 6.

Biggest Movers: SOL up 20%, ADA Hits Highest Point Since November

All of the top 20 coins were in the green again—and nothing rose bigger than Solana, which is rebounding from its FTX-triggered losses.

This Week in Coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum Rise, Solana Rises Most

Cosmos

Cosmos raced higher for a second straight session, after recently snapping a four-day losing streak. Friday's move saw the token move closer to a key resistance level of $12.50. Solana also moved higher earlier in the day, as price bounced from a key support point.

Biggest Movers: SOL Rebounds From Recent Losses, ATOM 5% Higher on Friday

SOL's price has surged 114% so far this year, slowly recovering from losses from early November. Crypto traders and analysts are navigating the prospects for the Solana community.

Solana Blockchain SOL Token Doubles From FTX-Crash-Induced Lows, but Will It Continue to Rebound?

Two days ago, bankruptcy administrators and FTX debtors published an update for unsecured creditors claiming the discovery of $5.5 billion in liquid assets. Roughly $3.5 billion of these funds are cryptocurrency assets, with 11 different digital currencies classified as “liquid assets.

FTX's $5.5 Billion in Alleged ‘Liquid Assets' Includes Locked SOL Cache and Illiquid FTT Holdings

Polkadot

A new annual report from early-stage venture firm Electric Capital shows massive developer activity growth on four blockchain projects, including two Ethereum (ETH) rivals.

Polygon, Cosmos and Two Ethereum Rivals Have Surged Over 400% in One Metric, Says Crypto Firm

Bonk

A top executive of Solana (SOL) says the Ethereum (ETH) rival is bouncing back after suffering the impacts of FTX's collapse.

Crypto Executive Reveals State of Solana Post-FTX Collapse, Comments on Dogecoin Rival BONK

Avalanche

Smart contract tokens and the decentralized finance economy have been on a tear during the last month, gaining against the U.S. dollar. The market capitalization of the smart contract platform token economy has swelled by $78 million over the last 30 days, increasing from $243 billion to the current $321 billion.

Smart Contract Tokens, Defi Economy See Strong Growth, Market Capitalization Swells by $78 Million in 30 Days

Climate solutions \"makes the most sense\" for real-world applications of blockchain, a co-founder of the initiative told CoinDesk.

Solana Foundation, Ripple, GBBC and Others Form Partnership to Promote Crypto Solutions for Climate Change

A popular crypto strategist and trader says smart contract protocol Solana (SOL) could mirror Ethereum's (ETH) 2021 meteoric rise.

Top Trader Says Solana (SOL) Could Repeat Ethereum's (ETH) Explosive 2021 Rally – Here's His Chart

The Solana blockchain was one of the most successful "Ethereum killers" until its close connection to and support by Sam Bankman-Fried undercut trust.

Solana Surges 60%, Overcoming SBF Connection and 2022's Outages

Solflare says the update will give its users an edge in transaction processing during busy periods.

Solflare Wallet Brings 'Priority' Gas Fees to Solana

Shiba Inu

Solana started the week trading near a two-month high, as momentum remained marginally bullish, despite market consolidation. The global cryptocurrency market cap is currently trading 0.98% higher as of writing. Shiba inu also traded close to recent highs, despite declines on Monday.

Biggest Movers: SOL, SHIB Remain Near Multi-Month Highs, Despite Market Consolidation

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is having an incredible comeback run in 2023 after seeing a dramatic decline of more than 80% in 2022.   What Happened: Solana gained 50% in the last seven days and, at the time of writing, was trading at $23, according to Benzinga Pro Data.

'Ethereum Rival' Roars Back With 50% Surge Last Week After Flipping Polygon Briefly — All Thanks To This Meme Coin

The once-heralded "solana killer" has bounced back, briefly bumping Polygon out of the top ten.

News for Solana Crypto (SOL)