Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin: Solana Has A Bright Future

Once an Ethereum killer, Solana is now facing a very tough time in the market and likely an existential crisis as we head into 2023. The implosion of crypto exchange FTX has triggered a major free-fall in the price of SOL which has now slipped under $10 for the first time in two years. As a result, SOL also slipped out of the list of top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

This year in 2022 alone, more than 96% of SOL’s price valuations have been eroded. Just as the market sentiment for Solana hits rock bottom, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has come forward to extend his support for Solana. In his recent Twitter message, Buterin wrote:

Some smart people tell me there is an earnest smart developer community in Solana, and now that the awful opportunistic money people have been washed out, the chain has a bright future. Hard for me to tell from outside, but I hope the community gets its fair chance to thrive.

Matrixport to Delist Solana

Bitmain-backed crypto asset manager Matrixport stated that it will be delisting Solana and Solana-U from its platform. Not only that, but several Solana-based projects have also announced their departure as the Solana blockchain faced multiple outages over the last year.

Two popular NFT projects – DeGods and y00ts – have announced switching to Ethereum and Polygon respectively. This points out the declining confidence in the Solana ecosystem among market players.

In an interview earlier this month, Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko said that he would not be focusing on the price action but rather on “the technology and having people build something awesome that’s decentralized.”

He further added that only 4% of the projects build on Solana have exposure to FTX. A staggering 80% of the projects on Solana have no exposure to the fallen crypto exchange. In addition to SOL, several Solana-based cryptocurrencies like Solend (SLND) and Serum (SRM) are also down recently.