Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently expressed his hopes for the developer community of Solana, a rival blockchain project. In a tweet, he commented that the "awful opportunistic money people have been washed out."
Buterin opined that it may be difficult for him to make an assessment from outside but he still wished these developers all the best.
In 2021, plenty of investors bought into Solana hoping to reap fast financial rewards without caring much about the technology's future value. With these investors gone, Buterin appears to believe that it's time for genuine developers who are passionate about the blockchain's potential to shine.
Since peaking near $260 back in November 2021, Solana has seen its value plummet by a staggering 97%, which brings its current market cap down to just above $3 billion. It is currently positioned in the 22nd spot by market cap, according to CoinGecko.The collapse of FTX back in November shook up much of the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin plunging to a new two-year low. However, Solana's price was affected more significantly than other major coins due to its close association with disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his enterprises.
On top of that, the blockchain suffered from technical difficulties throughout 2022, with multiple periods of network downtime.
This is quite a comedown for the project that was once viewed as the top "Ethereum killer." As reported by U.Today, Bank of America once predicted that Solana could become a Visa-like behemoth due to its high scalability.
Arman Shirinyan
