Solana ecosystem’s native token SOL, surpassed XRP this morning to become the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market value. Since hitting a low at the end of last year, SOL has gained more than 700% in value and is currently worth about 34 billion dollars. XRP and SOL are only behind Binance Coin (BNB), Tether (USDT), Ethereum (ETH), and Bitcoin (BTC).
The Solana Momentum Continues
This development makes SOL one of the best-performing top 100 cryptocurrencies of 2023. During this period, XRP gained only 80% in value and performed almost the same as Ethereum. XRP is facing a jury trial set for next year in the ongoing legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In July, a federal court determined that the firm’s programmed sales to individual investors through crypto exchanges and other platforms did not constitute securities.
The SEC’s withdrawal of charges against Ripple executives Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen in October will finally determine the extent of Ripple Labs’ violation of U.S. securities laws in the second quarter of 2024. The possibility of a settlement in this case is still ongoing.
Solana spent most of the 2021 bull rally ahead of XRP and behind Tether among the top five tokens, while its more recent extreme performance can partly be explained by how severely it crashed during the FTX bankruptcy process in November 2022.
Solana After the FTX Bankruptcy
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried made significant investments in projects within the Solana ecosystem, including SOL, and when the market lost faith in crypto assets on Bankman-Fried’s radar, the cumulative market value of the Solana ecosystem fell by nearly two-thirds in three days. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum only took a 20% hit during the same period.
Before the FTX bankruptcy, Solana was in the top 10 tokens, worth about half of XRP’s value. In the following months, Solana ended up at the very end of the top 20 tokens, behind Polkadot (DOT), Tron (TRX), and the memecoin Shiba Inu (SHIB).
