Solana Blockchain SOL Token Doubling After FTX-Induced Lows, Will It Continue to Rebound?

The Solana blockchain's native token, SOL, has been having a good start to the year, having doubled in price since mid-December and reaching as high as $24 earlier this week. This is a significant turnaround from earlier in the year when it plummeted to a record low of $8.19, making it one of the hardest-hit tokens of 2022.

A Bullish Tweet From Buterin

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's tweet expressing hope that the Solana community gets "its fair chance to thrive" may have helped SOL's recovery, though the token had already been declining prior to the FTX/Alameda Research fiasco.

TVL and Solana's Future

Total Value Locked (TVL) on the Solana chain dropped 96% in 2022, from $6.68 billion in January to $206 million at the end of December. Despite this, crypto analysts, blockchain developers, and executives remain optimistic about the blockchain's long-term future.

Riyad Carey, research analyst at crypto data firm Kaiko, said that "with Alameda gone, the protocol is in some sense free of that baggage and can become more community-centric." He believes that, while it may not be a top 3 or 5 chain by TVL in a year, Solana definitely has a lot of staying power.

Detaching From "Sam's Coin"

Messari senior research analyst Tom Dunleavy noted that Solana's on-chain performance has been strong, with daily active wallets interacting on major Solana protocols remaining constant post-FTX. Michael Repetny, core contributor at Solana-based liquid staking protocol Marinade Finance, attributed Solana's recent trading volume surge to growing interest in Solana-based meme coin BONK.

"Bonk is like an entry point to the Solana ecosystem, just like people come to non-fungible tokens (NFT) for gaming," he said, adding that with trust and faith in the Solana community, this goes beyond "Sam's coin".

Rebound To $50?

Stefan Rust, CEO of blockchain technology firm Laguna Labs, believes that SOL's price will rebound to $30 and even possibly $50 by the end of the year, while Brendon Sedo, a contributor to layer 1 blockchain Core DAO, compared Solana's current status to Ethereum's 2018 crash and believes that it will similarly rebound.

Akash Mahendra, portfolio manager at multichain digital wealth platform Yield App, said that in the long run, it's possible that the loss of FTX and Alameda will lead to a more decentralized and equitable network.

Conclusion

SOL's year-to-date performance has been encouraging and its price has been slowly recovering from its losses. While the future of Solana may still be uncertain, the blockchain's on-chain performance has been strong and the community is optimistic that it will continue to rebound.