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Solana Unveils Token Extensions As SOL Bounces Back, Surging 5%

The Solana Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to decentralization, adoption, and security on the Solana network, has launched token extensions.  

Solana Token Extensions Gains Traction

According to a January 24 announcement, token extensions provide developers, enterprises, financial institutions, and Solana-native development teams with a comprehensive suite of turnkey solutions for advanced token functionality. Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana and CEO of Solana Labs, commented on the launch, stating: 

Token extensions build on the characteristics that make Solana the ideal destination for developers. Solana is the first network to offer this level of integrated developer and user experience in a single token program. We’re already seeing the potential to build using token extensions via deployments from some of the most recognizable names in crypto.

Industry giants Paxos and GMO-Z.com Trust Company Inc. (GMO Trust) are leading the way in adopting token extensions. As announced by the Solana Foundation, these companies are “leveraging the benefits” of token extensions to issue stablecoins on the Solana blockchain. 

As previously reported, Paxos, a regulated blockchain and tokenization infrastructure platform, expanded its stablecoin issuance to the network in December. Similarly, GMO Trust announced the launch of the first regulated Japanese yen stablecoin and their own US dollar stablecoin on the Solana network. 

New Standards For Blockchain Compliance? 

Sheraz Shere, Head of Payments at the Solana Foundation, emphasized the appeal of the Solana network for enterprise-grade companies entering the web3 space. Shere stated: 

Companies like Visa, Worldpay, Stripe, Google, and Shopify have already seen the performance advantages inherent to the Solana network and have launched solutions and applications that are only possible on Solana. With token extensions, we are expanding what is possible for enterprise adoption of blockchain by natively enabling features that matter to large regulated enterprises.

Token extensions, designed to cater to builders across diverse industries such as stablecoins, real-world assets (RWA), and payments, offer a range of interesting features:

  • Transfer Hooks: Enables token issuers to exert control over token interactions, empowering developers to create intricate and flexible token mechanisms.
  • Transfer Fees: Provides the ability to charge fees for each token transfer, offering sustainable revenue models for different types of tokens built using token extensions.
  • Confidential Transfers: Utilizes zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt the transfer amount while publicly sharing the source, destination, and token type. This ensures compliance while preserving privacy.
  • Permanent Delegate Authority: Grants token issuers absolute authority over their tokens, particularly for those requiring revocation ability, such as licenses or credentials.
  • Non-transferability: Restricts token transfers to the issuer only, making it ideal for unique user identification and credentialing purposes.

Ultimately, with the launch of token extensions, Solana aims to position itself as a force in blockchain development, offering builders the tools to create new applications across various industries. 

Solana

The SOL token experienced a sharp drop of over 28% in the past 30 days, leading to a decline to the $79 level. However, the token has recovered in the past 24 hours with a 5% bounce, leading to a current trading price of $87.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Solana Saga Orders Scrapped As $30 Million BONK Token Package Overshadows Device’s Value

Solana (SOL) and its associated meme coin, Bonk (BONK), have witnessed remarkable surges in value, with SOL recording gains of over 71% and Bonk experiencing an astonishing 342% increase over the past 30 days. 

The positive growth within the Solana ecosystem has resulted in a surge in demand for the flagship mobile device, Solana Saga. However, the Solana Mobile team recently addressed challenges in meeting the “overwhelming demand” and explained order cancellations and inventory management issues.

Solana Mobile Faces Inventory Mishap

Over the past month, SOL has seen a significant uptrend, inching closer to the $100 mark, a level not reached since April 2022. Additionally, Bonk has experienced an extraordinary surge reaching a trading value of $0.00001896.

Solana

Given these developments and the social buzz within the blockchain and its mobile device, the Solana Mobile team confirmed that their limited inventory of 20,000 devices worldwide has sold out, with both the US and EU markets experiencing high demand.

According to a recent statement on X (formerly Twitter), in the process of fulfilling orders, the Solana Mobile team encountered an “inventory management issue” with their third-party distributor. This issue resulted in an inaccurate representation of the available inventory.

Consequently, the team was unable to fulfill orders placed after the inventory was depleted. Additionally, orders suspected of suspicious activity, such as excessive device orders or payment risks, were flagged and subsequently canceled. 

According to the announcement, the objective behind these measures is to ensure that as many users as possible can enjoy the Solana Saga mobile device.

Customers affected by the order cancellations have been promptly notified, and they will receive refunds within the coming days. 

Solana’s DEX Volume Overtakes Ethereum And Arbitrum

The Solana ecosystem, together with its native token SOL, has recently achieved significant milestones. Notably, Solana’s 24-hour decentralized exchange (DEX) volume has exceeded that of Ethereum (ETH) and Arbitrum (ARB) combined, surpassing the $2 billion mark. 

Additionally, Solana has emerged as the third-largest altcoin (only behind BNB) by market capitalization. These achievements reflect the growing popularity and success of Solana within the cryptocurrency market.

According to Token Terminal data, SOL’s market cap (circulating) stands at $41.05 billion, reflecting a remarkable increase of 46.98%, flipping XRP’s market cap by over $7 billion.  

The revenue generated has also witnessed substantial growth, with an 80.43% increase to $2.39 million. Furthermore, SOL’s fully diluted market cap has reached $54.31 billion, showcasing a significant rise of 45.60%.

The revenue generated on the Solana platform, when annualized, amounts to an impressive $29.13 million, signifying a substantial increase of 94.75%. 

Examining SOL’s financial ratios, the price-to-fully diluted ratio stands at 796.78x, indicating the market’s high expectations for future growth. However, this ratio has experienced a recent decrease of 19.3%. 

Solana

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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SOL Price Reaches $41, But What’s Happening In Solana Ecosystem?

Solana (SOL) has garnered significant attention in the cryptocurrency market, surpassing its peers with an impressive 79% upward trend over the past 30 days. As its price continues to soar, inquiries have arisen regarding the reaction of the Solana ecosystem to this surge.

About this subject, the Jarvis Labs team has offered intriguing insights into the ongoing SOL bull run and the condition of its ecosystem, addressing the factors influencing its growth.

Is The Solana Ecosystem Lagging Behind?

Despite SOL’s price surge, the Total Value Locked (TVL) on Solana has only doubled during this period, failing to match the fourfold increase in SOL’s token price. This disparity raises concerns about the growth and development of Solana’s ecosystem in 2023. A closer examination of the ecosystem reveals a significant lag compared to the rapid appreciation of SOL’s price.

Solana

The Jarvis Labs team highlights that a new wave of projects injects liquidity into Solana’s ecosystem, offering hope for its growth. Notably, these projects have been launched within the past year, leading to a diverse ecosystem rather than a concentration of similar offerings. 

Among the top gainers in TVL, seven projects emerged recently, contributing to Solana’s expanding landscape.

Several projects have caught attention within Solana’s ecosystem, showcasing their potential to drive growth. Jito, a liquid staking provider, offers maximum extractable value (MEV) rewards alongside staking yields. 

Marginfi, another noteworthy project, offers liquid staking tokens (LST) based on Jito’s platform, as well as a lending service emphasizing risk management. Additionally, decentralized exchanges like Phoenix and Jupiter have excelled in their respective niches.

Surprisingly, many successful projects within Solana’s ecosystem have yet to launch their tokens. This absence of tokens, according to Jarvis Labs, has contributed to “the lag in Solana’s TVL” despite the soaring token price. 

Sustainable Token Design

The hesitance to introduce tokens stems from past experiences, where projects tied to now bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its trading arm Alameda Research suffered significant losses, leaving a cautious sentiment among Solana developers, according to Jarvis Labs’s analysis.

The Jarvis Labs team believes that while tokens have the potential to be valuable assets, the cautionary tale of FTX-related projects highlights the importance of sustainable token design. Fair distribution, reasonable supply, and clear use cases are essential to creating tokens that add real value to the ecosystem.

Despite the challenges Solana’s ecosystem faces, the emergence of new projects and the forthcoming launch of tokens by some protocols offer hope for its future growth. 

Ultimately, Jarvis Labs suggests that by embracing sustainable token designs and maintaining a focus on ecosystem development, Solana can unlock the full potential of its “thriving network.” The Jarvis Labs’ analysis concluded: 

So, to all the Solana protocols out there: let’s make tokens great again. Let’s create tokens that are more than just a quick cash grab, tokens that contribute to the growth and sustainability of the ecosystem.

Solana

SOL’s price is approaching the $42 level, experiencing a notable surge of 3.7% within 24 hours.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com 

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Still Not Bullish On Solana? 4 New Reasons Why You Should Be

Solana (SOL) has been on the tip of many crypto enthusiasts’ tongues lately and with good reason. The vibrant ecosystem, strong partnerships, and a skyrocketing SOL price have given investors plenty to mull over. Here are four (new) reasons why you should lend Solana your attention.

#1 Solana And The US Regulatory Landscape

Solana’s prospects in the US seem to be intertwined with unfolding regulatory decisions. Vibhu Norby, founder of Drip Labs, today shared notable and positive insights from a recent Crypto Policy Bootcamp, tweeting, “Takeaways from Crypto Policy Bootcamp in D.C. … Most agreed Gensler is an outlier, lots of folks in Congress support crypto and clear rules, and everything is going to be fine. Just slow.”

This suggests a broader acceptance and understanding of crypto within the legislative chambers. One of the key points Norby highlighted was the collaborative efforts between the Solana Foundation and Polygon Labs. He shared, “Solana Foundation and Polygon Labs are working together (!) to secure better policy.”

Norby also touched upon the ongoing lawsuit between the SEC and Coinbase, asserting, “SEC vs. Coinbase is the most important case right now in the US. A few opinions from smart lawyers think Coinbase probably wins against the SEC before Q2 next year. But nobody knows of course.”

The ramifications of this case could have broad implications, especially for tokens like Solana (SOL) that have been pulled into regulatory scrutiny. Given the SEC’s allegations against Binance and Coinbase for selling unregistered securities, including SOL, a favorable outcome for Coinbase might positively impact Solana’s standing in the US and ultimately its price trajectory.

#2 Solana’s Potential Blue-Chip Evolution

The constant comparison between Ethereum and Solana has given rise to debates in the crypto sphere. However, the increasing attention Solana has garnered, especially from venture capitalists (VCs), has lent credence to the belief that it might soon join the ranks of blue-chip assets.

Raj Gokal, co-founder of Solana, recently hinted at a shifting attitude amongst VCs towards Solana. In response, Chris Burniske, analyst and partner at Placeholder VC, predicted a change in perception among VCs – moving from avoidance to eagerness in investing in Solana projects.

Burniske further confirmed a user’s query regarding Solana’s potential to attain Ethereum-like prominence, suggesting that in places like India, Solana already enjoys a reputation similar to Ethereum’s.

He stated:

Very quickly this will go from, ‘We don’t invest in Solana projects,’ to ‘We’re underexposed to Solana.’ And so the bidding wars will begin… the quality entrepreneurs of the ecosystem deserve it.” […] And would add that in some countries, like India, Solana is already as widely known and beloved as Ethereum.

#3 Rising Institutional Interest

Recently, the institutional tide appears to be turning in favor of Solana. Sasha Fleyshman, a notable portfolio manager at Arca, expressed his initial hesitation towards Solana in a tweet, stating, “For what it’s worth Raj Gokal, Chris Burniske, I haven’t really seen too much in the pipeline to even consider for investment from the Solana side of the ecosystem.”

This sentiment, once widely echoed within the institutional realm, seems to be undergoing a change. “I think party lines were drawn on both sides [Ethereum and Solana]- as for us, we are open to taking looks, but unsure how to get that started,” Fleyshman revealed.

A deep dive into recent data also shows Solana’s growing allure among institutional investors. Solana (SOL) has seen the strongest influx of capital among all crypto assets in recent weeks. Per CoinShares’ weekly digital asset investment products report, SOL has been the darling of institutional investors.

The latest CoinShares report indicated a significant surge in capital inflows towards Solana. In just one week, Solana attracted a substantial $15.5 million, starkly juxtaposed against Ethereum’s outflows, which stood at $7.4 million for the same period.

Such a bullish institutional endorsement is further amplified when considering the year-long metrics. Solana’s Assets under Management (AuM) for the year have burgeoned to a remarkable $74 million, marking a surge of 47%. In comparison, Ethereum’s outflows have amounted to $119 million year-to-date.

#4 Bullish Chart Setup

The Solana (SOL) chart is extremely bullish and one of the strongest in the entire altcoin market right now, with a performance of +240% year-to-date. At press time, SOL was trading at $32.14 after establishing a new high for the year yesterday at $33.87 yesterday.

The SOL price has broken out of the triangle formation and is in the process of establishing a new trading range above $30.61. If SOL defends this level in the coming days and weeks, a rise to the next key resistance area at $47.21 could be on the cards.

Solana SOL price

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Solana (SOL) Outperforms Top Coins With 28% Gains On Weekly Chart

Solana (SOL) recovered from the slight pullback yesterday, even when the general crypto market cap dropped today. SOL which has been on an uptrend in the past week saw a 28.44% increase during this time. This increase might be due to combined economic factors and Solana’s growing utility among crypto users.

What Is Driving The Price Of Solana?

The Solana network is enjoying more attention from the increased crypto awareness and adoption among individual and institutional investors. The network has rolled out plans for 2023, creating excitement among its online community.

Related Reading: XRP Vs. Cardano (ADA), Which Is The Better Investment In 2023?

The SOL network provides developers access and a framework to build DApps on its blockchain. For instance, Phantom, a crypto wallet, is hosted on the Solana blockchain. The wallet supports decentralized finance, staking, and NFT transactions for Solana users. 

Also, SolanaMobile, on Twitter, announced its intention to launch Solana Mobile Stack and Saga phones. The mobile phone will bring the Solana blockchain to the fingertips of users. Users are keen on the launch of the device, slated for this early this year. 

Additionally, as an altcoin, Solana correlates to bitcoin in price action. So, Bitcoin’s recent rally and other economic factors might be influencing SOL’s price.

The macroeconomic factors affecting SOL price include a low Consumer Price Index (CPI) value for December 2022. The CPI notes the overall change in consumer prices in a specific timeframe. These factors combined could be responsible for SOL’s price surge in the past few weeks.

SOLUSD
Solana Price Prediction: Will SOL Break Its Resistance?

SOL is recovering from yesterday’s slight pullback, trading at $21.28. The support levels are $19.60, $20.09, and $20.75, while the resistance levels are $21.90, $22.40, and $23.05. SOL is trading below its 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) and 200-day SMA on the weekly charts. These signs point to a bearish trend or slight reversal in the price of SOL ahead.

Related Reading: HNT Balloons As Token Gets 36% More Helium In Run-Up To Network Migration

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is close to the oversold region at 43.04 and might continue to descend if the bears sustain their charge.

The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) is below its signal line and giving off negative values, indicating a bearish reversal despite the rally.

The price of SOL might dip further and touch the $19.69 support. The next rally will likely surpass the first resistance level of $21.90 in the coming days.

At press time, the price of SOL was trading at $21.42. Its trading volume is down over 50% in the last 24 hours to be sitting at $638.8 million.

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An Introduction To Solana: Innovations, Characteristics, And Criticism

Will Solana be the one? The race to be the prime smart-contract-enabled blockchain is heating up. Many projects are chasing Ethereum’s tail, offering faster and cheaper transactions plus technological innovations. What does Solana offer? An internal clock. An incredibly higher number of transactions. Fees so low that are almost non-existent. The possibility to scale to global adoption in their layer 1. 

Related Reading | Solana to Launch Stake Pools, This Is How It Will Enable Rewards For SOL Holders

Will this be enough to capture the market? Is Solana the mythical Ethereum-killer that everyone is looking for? Keep reading and get enough info to make your own mind. We’ll summarize the good, the bad, and the ugly in digestible bullet points and short text.

What Is Proof Of History And How Does It Work? 

Contrary to what the name suggests, proof of history is not a consensus mechanism. Solana uses Proof-Of-Stake to validate its blocks. “The core Solana innovation is Proof of History (POH), a globally-available, permissionless source of time in the network that works before consensus,” says the following video’s information box. 

To drive the point home, let’s also quote Techcrunch:

Enter Yakovenko’s big idea, which he calls “proof of history,” wherein the Solana blockchain has developed a kind of synchronized clock that, in essence, assigns a timestamp for each transaction and disables the ability for miners and bots to decide the order of which transactions get recorded onto the blockchain. Yakovenko says doing so allows for greater security and “censorship resistance.”

Solana’s creator is Anatoly Yakovenko, a San Francisco resident “who spent more than a dozen years as an engineer working on wireless protocols at Qualcomm.” He wasn’t interested in cryptocurrencies until he figured out a way to improve the system. In traditional blockchains, the blocks don’t carry a timestamp and that leads to inefficiencies. Yakovenko figured out a way to include it in the SHA-256 (Secure Hashing Algorithm 256) hash function, and the rest is history… proof of history.

Other Innovations That The Solana Blockchain Offers

This section will be the only technical part of the article, we promise. To start, we’re going to quote EVALUAPE’s analysis. They’re “a platform for demonstration and evaluation of blockchain projects.”

VDF, Verifiable Delay Function:

A function used to generate PoH. It is a collision resistant hash function. In short, this is a function that takes a bunch of data inputs and spits out an output in fixed size. The main advantage of the function is its security.

Avalanche Communication: 

Simply speaking, since the hash value in every timestamp is calculated by the previous hash value, a long range of hash value can be broke into small partitions to be verified separately by the nodes. Each node only needs to verify a partition of hash value, and then concatenate and restore to a long hash value. 

And for the next batch, we’ll quote Decrypt’s analysis of the Solana platform.

Tower Consensus, a variant of Proof-Of-Stake that:

Enables distributed networks to reach consensus despite attacks from malicious nodes, known as Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT).

Solana’s implementation of PBFT enforces a global source of time across the blockchain through a second novel protocol known as Proof of History (PoH).

Sealevel:

This allows for a parallel smart contracts runtime that optimizes resources and ensures that Solana can scale horizontally across GPUs and SSDs, which should help the platform scale to meet demands.

Gulf Stream:

Solana also completely nixes the mempool system used by other platforms, and instead forwards transactions to validators even before the previous batch of transactions is finalized. This helps to maximize confirmation speed and boost the number of transactions that can be handled both concurrently and in parallel. 

Key Characteristics Of The Solana Blockchain

  • Technically, it’s still in beta. Their MainNet is up and running, though.
  • Low barrier of entry to become a validator. There’s no minimum stake to start validating, but the possibility of being selected is directly tied to the size of your stake.
  • It’s even faster than legacy financial systems AND centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. 
  • Over 100 projects were building on Solana by the end of 2020. Now, there are more than 250. The growth is exponential.
  • At the time of writing, their official stats report 905 validators and 1331 nodes. The Avg. fee per transaction is $0.00025.
  • They currently report 1,375 transactions per second.
  • The project supports smart contracts in any programing language.

Powerful Allies And Co-Signs

  • It’s the “official chain” for USDC. And USDC is the second-largest stablecoin in the world.
  • Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research. Their Serum DEX runs on Solana, as well as their projects Maps.me and Oxygen, a borrowing/lending DeFi protocol.

Related Reading | Why Solana and Polkadot Have Been The Least Impacted By The Crypto Crash

Solana, Criticism And Scandals 

  • Even though they have ample documentation freely available, the project doesn’t have a clearly defined roadmap.
  • Their official tokenomics clearly say “Subject to change.”
  • There’s not enough information about the functions of the Solana Foundation. And they hold more than 10% of the SOL token. And manage a community reserve of a whopping 38%.
  • Someone detected a mysterious wallet with 11,365,067 SOL. They ended up being an undisclosed loan from the Solana Foundation to a market-making firm that provided liquidity on Binance. Those tokens were eventually burned, but wow.
  • In December, for six hours, “Solana’s Mainnet Beta network halted new block confirmations, which resulted in a temporary outage.” The reason was “A validator booted up two instances of their machine and it started transmitting multiple different blocks for the same slot, eventually creating 3 different unconfirmed minority partitions of the network. ” Their excuse was that Solana is still in beta, which is fair.

SOL price chart for 08/15/2021 on FTX | Source: SOL/USD on TradingView.com
A Quote To Close This

About Solana’s objectives, Anatoly Yakovenko told Techcrunch:

“Everything that we do to make this thing faster and faster results in this better censorship resistance and therefore better markets,” he said yesterday. “And price discovery is what I imagine is the killer use case for decentralized public networks. Can we be the world’s price discovery engine? That’s an interesting question to ask.”

Featured Image by Zack Dowdy on Unsplash – Charts by TradingView