Solana recovers from its death rattle, with a 140% increase in value since the beginning of the year

According to CoinMarketCap the cryptocurrency traded at $24.28 on Tuesday up 140% over the beginning of 2023, when it was hovering around the $10 mark. In January, on-chain activity increased. Crypto market researcher Messari reported earlier in the month that transaction volumes had increased and active accounts had returned back to pre-crypto exchange FTX’s collapse.

The 10th largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization has increased 5% over the past week and has seen a 1% increase over the past 24 hours.

The underlying blockchain that Solana uses, with the same name, has generated a lot of investor excitement over the past few years. It was called the “Ethereum killer” and is poised to challenge Layer 1’s blockchain. The hype helped Solana’s token reach a peak of $260 in November 2021. However, the token has been facing a variety of challenges.

Solana’s decline is partly due to the ongoing Crypto Winter. However, investors have been hesitant because of frequent outages and close ties to Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX.

According to CoinMarketCap data, the former CEO, now in disrepute, was a prominent advocate for Solana and an investor in Solana. The token fell more than 56% in November due to FTX’s crash in November, according to CoinMarketCap data.

The cryptocurrency has still seen an increase in activity on its underlying blockchain. This includes the popularity of the BONK NFT collection, which is based on a Solana-based meme coin. It was sold out in less than a day. According to TechCrunch the total number of Solana developers contributed to the blockchain increased 83% earlier in January.

Raj Gokal, cofounder of Solana, has for his part defended the merits his blockchain and crypto token in a tweet. He called on the crypto industry players not to argue over Solana’s future in a Jan. 11 post.

He wrote, “Competition doesn’t matter and critics are already silent.”