By James Davis
Solana, a coin once considered an Ethereum killer, continues to decline further. The asset is currently out of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap after recording a 17% drop in the last 24 hours, as per CoinGecko. In November last year, Solana was ranked in the top 10 with a market cap of over $75 billion.
At the time of writing, SOL is trading at $8.16; the lowest price recorded since February last year. Also, for the first time since the same month, SOL price dropped below the $11 mark on Wednesday. It has seen a seven-day decline of about 31% and a two-week drop of 39%.
Solana Records Significant Decline in 2022
Solana has lost 96% of its value since its all-time high of $261 in November last year. In addition, since the beginning of this year, the asset has seen a drop of 94%. As a result of price depreciation, Solana’s market cap dropped to about $3 billion and is now ranked at #22 on CoinGecko.
It is worth noting that Solana is the only coin in the top 100 that saw a double-digit percentage decline in the past 24 hours. It remains to be known why the token shed over a dollar in its price without reasonable cause. However, the once-named coin of the year in 2021 by several crypto analysts has faced a series of challenges in 2022.
Challenges Faced by Solana and Their Impact on the Ecosystem
The collapse of Alameda Research and FTX caused severe damage to Solana. Both companies had invested significantly in the Solana ecosystem and its token SOL. In addition, Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX, was an outspoken advocate of Solana.
When the two firms collapsed in November, the whole crypto market took a hit, but Solana felt the effects more than any other asset due to its close association with the former billionaire and his firms.
In addition, the Solana blockchain has experienced many technical challenges this year, with several periods of network downtime. This week, the creator of Yoots and DeGods, two of the most famous Solana NFT projects, announced plans to bridge the NFTs to Polygon and Ethereum due to the declining Solana network.