Altcoin
Solana: A primer on the performance of the Layer 1 blockchain in Q3
Although user activity measured in non-vote transactions and fee payers declined on Solana in Q3, it recorded significant growth in other aspects.
- Solana’s native coin witnessed a value uptick in Q3.
- User activity on the chain declined during the same period.
A new report from Messari revealed that leading open-source blockchain Solana [SOL] saw growth and some corresponding declines in Q3.
Read Solana’s [SOL] Price Prediction 2023-24
A notable growth recorded within the Solana ecosystem was the uptick in the value of its native coin SOL between July and September.
Here’s the rundown
In the year’s second quarter, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed regulatory complaints against Coinbase and Binance, alleging that SOL, alongside other crypto assets, were listed on these exchanges as securities.
This resulted in a 34% dip in SOL’s price in June. However, towards the end of the month, the coin rebounded “and carried that momentum into Q3.”
Despite the headwinds faced by the coin due to the network’s ties to the now-unusable crypto exchange FTX, SOL recorded a 17% increase in value quarter-over-quarter.
Messari added,
“Notably, SOL outperformed assets of a similar market cap — its market cap rank increased from 10 to 7 QoQ,”
The blockchain’s decentralized finance (DeFi) vertical also experienced growth during the quarter under review. Closing Q3 with a total value locked (TVL) of $368 million, Solana saw a 32% increase in the value of assets held within the DeFi protocols housed within it.
According to the report, MarginFi, a decentralized portfolio margining protocol, saw the most growth. Between July and September, the protocol’s TVL rallied by over 700%.
Source: Messari
Further, within the period under review, staking activity on Solana picked up momentum.
Messari found that,
“Total staked SOL continued to rise this quarter, up 2% to 404.9 million. At $8.2 billion, Solana is firmly in second place behind Ethereum in terms of total staking market cap. The amount of SOL staked is almost back to pre-FTX collapse figures.”
Source: Messari
There were some declines
As for declines on the network in Q3, the report showed that user activity, measured by non-vote transactions and fee payers, dropped on Solana.
The average daily count of non-vote transactions completed on Solana within the 90-day period in consideration totaled 25 million. This represented a 25.3% decline from the 33.1 million recorded in Q2.
Regarding the average daily count of fee payers on the network in Q3, this also dropped by 37%. Likewise, the number of new fee-payers on the network plummeted by 76% within the same period.
Source: Messari
How much are 1,10,100 SOLs worth today?
Not spared from the decline in the general non-fungible tokens (NFTs) ecosystem, Solana-minted digital collectibles saw a significant decline in sales volume in Q3.
As noted in the report, NFT sales volume across the Solana network dropped by 57% between July and September. “Sales and unique buyers were both down QoQ as well,” Messari added.
Source: Messari
