In the past, Binance Labs, the $10 billion venture capital and incubation arm of the crypto exchange Binance, announced an investment in Solayer, a Solana restaking protocol. Binance Labs’ investment in Solayer occurred as the firm continues to take significant risks in the staking and restaking sectors of crypto. In recent months, Binance Labs has invested in staking projects across different ecosystems, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Berachain. These include Ethereum liquidity staking protocols Puffer Finance and Renzo, Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon, and Berachain liquidity staking protocol Infrared.
A Look at Solayer
Solayer is described as a Solana restaking protocol similar to the pioneering Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer. Restaking, in brief, allows users to maximize their earnings by locking their staked assets in different protocols known as Active Validated Services (AVS) to earn additional rewards.
According to information from the Solayer website, native Solana (SOL) is first converted into a liquid staking token (LST) called sSOL-raw, issued by the staking pool manager, for SOL restaking. The site explains that sSOL-raw is then converted into sSOL after another interaction with the Solayer restaking pool manager.
Data from DeFiLlama shows that Solayer increased its TVL from $60 million to over $150 million shortly after entering the market, positioning it as the 13th largest protocol on Solana. As of today, Solayer’s TVL stands at $141.7 million, and according to its website, over 79,000 investors have locked their tokens.
What is the Current Price of Solana?
Amid these developments, attention turned to the price of Solana. At the time of writing, Solana was trading at $148.23, reflecting a 1.47% increase in the last 24 hours.
With this rise, Solana’s market cap surpassed $69 billion, while its trading volume fell by 18.5% to $5.4 billion, indicating a decline in investor interest.
