Solana Is Going Buck Wild Again

Don’t look now, but Solana (SOL) is soaring…

Not too long ago, Solana – the popular layer-1 Ethereum rival – was facing a major headwind: It’s deep rooted ties to SBF. The disgraced FTX CEO was a prominent early backer who managed to acquire over $1 billion worth of the tokens through Alameda Research and FTX.
The Backdrop: We all know how this story shook out. Once FTX crashed, so did the market, with SOL and other “Sam coins” plummeting. SOL prices eventually landed at a low of ~$9, down 96% from the 2021 peak of ~$260.

But adding to the challenges for SOL investors, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court granted approval in September for the sale of FTX's digital assets, encompassing $102 million worth of SOL tokens.

In anticipation of this FTX liquidation event, traders were bracing for the worst – substantial selling pressure on prices.

Instead, the market witnessed a surprising turn of events…

SOL turns a corner: Despite the unlock schedule of FTX’s holdings, big shorts were squeezed, and SOL made a massive counter move to the upside. Couple that with the broader crypto market rising from a slumber, and SOL token prices haven’t looked back.

By the numbers:

It appears that Solana is not only back, but that it’s back with vengeance.

To put this recent rally into perspective, over the weekend, SOL reportedly had more 24-hour volume than BTC on both spot and futures.

The icing on the cake was perhaps ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood going on CNBC (here’s the clip), claiming that Solana was possibly a better bet than Ethereum – the world’s most used blockchain – in terms of technical capabilities.

Our Perspective: We’ll be honest, the uprising of Solana in recent weeks wasn’t on our bingo card. But we have to give credit where it’s due.

Cathie, of all people, is right. Despite Solana’s network downtime/maintenance woes, Solana is significantly faster and cheaper than Ethereum. For context, Solana gas fees currently stand at $0.000522. To make a transaction on Ethereum, on the other hand, it costs $6.58 on average. That’s a big difference… especially for developers crawling themselves out of a bear market with limited capital.

Look, in past crypto bear markets, it was common to see projects capitulate (anyone remember NEO?!) and get lost and forgotten in the black sea of altcoins. Solana doesn’t look to be one of them.

By now, it’s evident that big players and investors alike still see value in the project. In August, for example, Solana integrated with Shopify. And in September, Visa announced that it had chosen Solana to help with its stablecoin ambitions. That’s some big baller stuff for a company with a lot of bad rep.

Now, do these partnerships justify a 30-day 200% hockey stick? Of course not. But it does go to show that Solana will likely still be knocking on Ethereum’s door in the years to come.

Also, 200% in 30 days? Moves like this don’t happen in bear markets 🙂. Gear up, be smart, and don’t get too greedy. Because something is brewing.

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Blockchain.com Raises $110 Million at Less Than Half of Prior Valuation

Blockchain.com has raised a $110 million Series E strategic financing according to a company press release. The round was led by Kingsway Capital who also led an undisclosed round in Q3 of last year after Blockchain ran into issues around the collapse of Three Arrows Capital.

Details: Along with the fundraise, the company announced that Manny Stotz (founder and CEO of Kingsway) and Nicolas Brand (Partner at Lakestar) have joined the company’s Board of Directors.

By the numbers: In October of last year, Bloomberg reported that Blockchain was looking to raise financing at a $3-4 billion valuation – a sharp decrease from the $14 billion valuation only five months earlier.

The big picture: Although it’s currently unclear what Blockchain was able to get, insiders in the know will be sure to use it as a comp for other crypto companies. Kraken, for example, was in talks to raise funding at a $20 billion valuation in 2021. That number is almost certainly significantly lower today as the company still plans to IPO.

Between the lines: There is no doubt that Blockchain wants to go public, and this round of funding may just be what is needed to get there.

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