ld-capital-driving-blockchain-growth-through-solana-innovation

I. Introductions

Solana is a Layer 1 blockchain that uses Proof of History (PoH), renowned for its high efficiency, speedy transactions, and low fees. It was established in 2017 by Anatoly Yakovenko, a former Qualcomm executive. Following the collapse of FTX, The Solana ecosystem,including the price of $SOL, took a significant hit. This has left them in a depressed state for the past year

Currently, the Solana ecosystem is experiencing a renaissance due to several key factors:

1. Market Recovery: According to Artemis data, the stablecoin market cap in the blockchain market rose from $130 billion on October 1, 2023, to $135.5 billion in Q4 2023, and reached $156.5 billion by March 26, 2024. Specifically, the stablecoin market cap on Solana increased from $883.9 million to $97.5 billion, a growth of approximately 170,000%.

2. New Projects and Potential Airdrops: In January 2024, Solana’s largest DEX Jupiter announced airdrops to early users. Other projects like Drift Protocol, Backpack, Marginfi, and Magic Eden, which have not yet issued tokens, have also announced airdrops, boosting user interest in interacting with new projects on Solana.

3. High Performance and Meme Culture: With the rise in $ETH price, Ethereum’s interaction costs soared above those of other Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains, prompting a shift among regular users. Solana’s premiere meme token, $BONK, reached a market cap of $1.5 billion by mid-December, catalyzing a meme-driven wealth phenomenon within the Solana ecosystem.

II. Token Situation

The total supply of $SOL tokens is 573 million, with a circulating supply of 444 million and 360 million tokens staked. The current market cap is 872 billion USD, which surpasses the previous bull market peak.

III. Ecosystem

The Solana ecosystem is quickly recovering. The TVL is currently 49.9 billion USD, on the cusp of reaching the previous bull market peak of 100 billion USD. The number of daily active users and new wallet addresses on chain has consistently hit new highs since May 2022. As of March 2024, there are 37.43 million active addresses, with an increase of 27.84 million new addresses.

Source: the block

Meme

Known as “模因” in Chinese, a meme is defined as “the basic unit of culture that can be transmitted non-genetically, primarily through imitation.” In the internet society, memes are viewed as cultural elements that can go viral, taking forms such as language, images, videos, behaviors, and more. Memes should possess three features for replication: inheritance, variation, and selection. Users naturally select and reproduce resonating information. Memes not favored by the public disappear over time, leading to cultural selection. The driving force is subconscious emotion, and an explosive impact requires numerous transmitters expressing their feelings.

The top 100 meme tokens by market capitalization include $DOGE, $SHIB, $PEPE, $WIF, $FLOKI, and $BONK. Except for Ethereum, only Solana’s meme tokens have made it into the top 100 by market cap. In blockchain meme culture, “DOGE” is the original unit. $SHIB and $FLOKI are Ethereum’s versions, while $BONK and $WIF are Solana’s. $WIF, with a larger community, overtook $BONK to become Solana’s leading meme token.

The market cap data is sourced from Coingecko as of March 24, 2024.

Dogwifhat ($WIF)

The Dogwifhat meme initially gained popularity among Fortnite and Rocket League players. On November 6, 2019, professional Fortnite player Issa first used an image of a Shiba Inu in a pink knitted hat as his Twitter profile picture. Twitter user @Vapurly commented “Dogwifhat” and later tweeted “Join the dogwifhat.” This led to numerous influential figures, including Fortnite streamer Vraxito and Rocket League players Spoodah and nxtsabo, using the image as their social media avatars.

The Dogwifhat token (WIF), inspired by its namesake image, was introduced in November 2023. Robinhood announced its support for WIF on its cryptocurrency platform on March 1, 2024. The following day, BitMEX’s co-founder and CEO, Arthur Hayes, expressed his optimism towards WIF on Twitter.

Bonk ($BONK)

Launched on December 25, 2022, as a Christmas gift to the Solana community, Bonk distributed 50% of its tokens through airdrops. The project aims to challenge the dominance of VC tokens and criticizes the high-inflation, low-circulation token economics. $BONK tokens are widely accepted within the Solana community and are used as a payment option for NFTs on platforms such as penBook and Orca. These tokens also incentivize staking NFTs on SolFarm and BonkStake. Bonk has broadened its influence by airdropping tokens to owners of the Solana Saga crypto phone.

Book of MEME ($BOME)

Book of MEME, a CC0 meme library, is a decentralized social network featuring linkable NFTs and mini GIFs on the Solscan network. It was created by Pepe Meme artist Darkfarm. Initially aiming to raise 500 $SOL, the project ended up amassing a total of 10,131 $SOL. All raised $SOL were added to the LP pool, providing solid initial liquidity and allowing whales to easily engage in trading.

Slerf ($SLERF)

On March 17, Slerf announced its successful fundraising of over 50k $SOL through X. Half of the funds will be used for a presale, while the rest will be injected into the liquidity pool. On March 18, however, the project’s founder @Slerfsol revealed that operational errors led to the accidental destruction of LP and airdropped tokens, with minting permissions permanently removed. This incident triggered a significant increase in SLERF’s price.

Myro ($MYRO)

Named after Solana co-founder Raj Gokal’s pet dog, Myro, holders of $MYRO tokens can use them to buy limited-edition Myro merchandise, such as T-shirts, hats, and hoodies. The project regularly hosts community events, including voice chats, forums, and competitions, to enhance community cohesion. The team chose to implement a 0% transaction tax on the token, ensuring users incur no additional costs when trading. In addition to relinquishing ownership of the contract, developers also burn their LP tokens, further reinforcing the decentralized nature of the meme token.

$WEN

$WEN, a meme token, was launched on the Jupiter project’s LFG Launchpad platform as a test issuance.

Token allocation: 70% for airdrops to Jupiter users, Ovols NFT holders, blue-chip NFT holders, Genesis Saga NFT holders, mockJUP test users, etc.; 20% for building liquidity on DLMM; 10% reserved for the treasury, with 0.75% of WEN going to Jupiter DAO and 0.25% to the Jupiter team. Any unclaimed WEN tokens will be burned after the airdrop claim period ends.

DEX

Jupiter ($JUP)

Jupiter, a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator on Solana, was launched in September 2021. It aims to improve the trading experience for Solana users by pooling liquidity from various sources. Jupiter currently provides four main features: trade aggregation, limit orders, DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging)/scheduled buys, and Jupiter Start.

According to Coingecko’s decentralized exchange trading volume rankings, Jupiter’s 24-hour trading volume consistently ranks second, trailing only Uniswap. It has even surpassed Uniswap on several recent occasions. This success is attributable not just to the dynamic Solana ecosystem, with its high trading volumes, but also to Jupiter’s robust liquidity, making it a preferred trading platform for Solana users.

source:Coingecko

To better acquaint Jupiter community members and users with new projects in the Solana ecosystem, Jupiter has introduced the Jupiter Start service. One of its primary features, the Launchpad (LFG), is now active, making it the only active DEX with a built-in launchpad on Solana. The LFG Launchpad commenced its first round of voting on March 7th, enabling supported candidate projects to issue their tokens. The first-round candidates include Zeus Network, SharkyFi, and UpRock, with Zeus Network confirming its launch on the LFG Launchpad.

In Jupiter DAO’s voting process, $JUP holders lock their tokens to acquire voting rights and actively participate in voting for proposals and LFG candidate projects. There’s no minimum stake required. A 30-day cooling-off period applies to unstaking tokens, during which participants can still vote, but their voting power will gradually diminish.

Jupiter plans to distribute 100 million $JUP and 75% of the launchpad fees to stakers. As per Jupiter DAO’s historical data, about 22,000 wallet addresses staked approximately 240 million tokens in the first voting round (March-June). This time, 50 million tokens and other launchpad fees, including 750 million $WEN tokens, will be allocated, with an additional 50 million tokens reserved for the next quarter. This implies that the staking yield for J$UP in the first round (90 days) could reach a minimum of 84% (0.5/2.4/90100%365).

source:vote.jup.ag

In addition, Jupiter has established Jupiter Labs, an independent unit for incubating infrastructure projects including a derivatives DEX and an LSD stablecoin. Their derivatives product, Perps, similar to the GMX V1 protocol, has a beta version with $SOL/$ETH/$WBTC trading pairs. The $SOL pair, with a $200 million 24-hour trading volume, indicates Jupiter’s successful user and fund attraction. The yet-to-be-launched stablecoin protocol, XYZ, will allow users to mint the SUSD stablecoin using SOL as collateral.

Jupiter, handling the majority of Solana’s trading volume, can leverage its user traffic and project resources through Jupiter Start and Jupiter Labs to boost its own growth and the Solana ecosystem.

Team and Investment:

The team’s key members are Meow and Ben Chow, who founded Jupiter in May 2021. They are also part of Meteora, a liquidity platform on Solana. To date, Jupiter has not disclosed any fundraising information.

Token Situation:

The project officially launched its token on January 31, 2024, with a total supply of 10 billion tokens. 40% of these tokens will be distributed to the community through four airdrops. The first of these airdrops has already distributed 10% of the tokens, offering further incentives to encourage user adoption.

With a market capitalization of $1.605 billion, the token is listed on major exchanges such as Binance and Gate. The circulating supply of JUP tokens is 1.35 billion, with 240 million tokens staked in the first round of voting. This corresponds to 18% of liquidity being locked up. The limited circulation of tokens on the market and the high yield’s spiral effect could potentially drive the price of $JUP higher.

source:Coingecko

Raydium ($RAY)

Raydium, the first Automated Market Maker and liquidity provider on Solana, differentiates itself by integrating with the Serum order book. This allows for greater trading flexibility and enhanced liquidity as Raydium’s pools contribute to the Serum book, enabling mutual order trading.

Raydium also operates its own Launchpad. The popular gaming project, Star Atlas, conducted its IEO on this platform. Raydium offers two allocation pools: the Ray Pool and the Community Pool. The Community Pool enables participants to partake in IEO issuance by performing social media tasks. Conversely, the Ray Pool grants IEO entry tickets based on the amount of staked RAY tokens.

However, the project suffered a security breach in December 2022, resulting in a loss of approximately $4.4 million. The project treasury later compensated the investors. Due to the decline of the Solana ecosystem and the negative impact of the hack, Raydium entered a period of slow development, with its market capitalization being surpassed by Orca at one point.

Team and Investment:

The Raydium team, with years of experience in cryptocurrency quant trading and market making, was introduced to the Solana ecosystem by the FTX team. The amount of funds raised by Raydium has not been disclosed.

source:Rootdata

Token Situation:

The total supply of the RAY token is 555 million, launched on February 21, 2021. The current market capitalization is $500 million, with a Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) of $1.07 billion. The circulating supply of the token is 46.7%. In the RAY token’s economic model, 22% of the tokens are allocated to the team and advisors. It is reported that this portion of the tokens has a lock-up period of at least 3 years, which means that the team’s tokens may face unlocking in 2024.

source:Coingecko

Nosana ($NOS) — Depin

Introduction:

Nosana is a distributed GPU network that allows individuals to rent computational power. It leverages the untapped potential of idle GPUs worldwide, offering on-demand GPU computational resources. This solution addresses the GPU shortage in the market and meets the computational needs of AI users, especially those involved in metaverse projects.

Nosana’s goal is to integrate AI with blockchain technology to meet the growing demand for GPU units in AI inference.

With the rapid expansion of the AI sector, Nosana has quickly pivoted towards AI inference, leading to a positive performance of its token price.

According to Nosana’s browser data, there was a substantial increase in demand for its AI inference services from mid-December 2023 to March 2024.

source:Nosana Explorer

Token Situation:

The total supply of $NOS tokens is 100 million. Currently, it has a market capitalization of $410 million, with 83% of the tokens in circulation. It is listed on major exchanges including Gate and MEXC. The majority of the liquidity is concentrated on Raydium.

$NOS is the native token of the Nosana ecosystem. It is used to pay for service fees, purchase computational resources on Nosana, and is required to deploy AI inference tasks on the platform. Additionally, Nosana offers token staking for users to earn rewards. Of the fees generated within the Nosana network, 2% is allocated to reward NOS stakers. This mechanism allows the NOS token to capture and retain value within the Nosana ecosystem.

source:Coingecko

Helium ($HNT)

Introduction:

Helium incentivizes miners to provide wireless network coverage through hotspots, facilitating low-power, wide-coverage access for IoT devices. Its unique Proof of Coverage (PoC) mechanism, an optimized geolocation-based version of traditional PoW mining, offers lower energy consumption and increased accessibility.

On April 20, 2023, the Helium network completed its migration to the Solana network, benefiting from both the strong ecosystem and compelling narrative. As of now, the community has nearly 990,000 active hotspots and 400,000 active hotspots.

The 2024 DePIN Global Hardware Conference will be held on April 8th at Cyberport in Hong Kong, and Helium Foundation CEO, Abhay Kumar, has confirmed his attendance.

Team and Investment:

Founded in 2013, the Helium project is headquartered in San Francisco, USA. Since 2014, Helium has completed at least four rounds of financing. In 2022, it raised $200 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $1.2 billion. Their fundraising efforts across various rounds have been impressive. Participating investors include A16Z, Multicoin, and Google Ventures, among others.

Token Situation:

The total supply of HNT tokens is 223 million, with a circulating supply of 163 million and a market capitalization of $980 million. HNT is the primary economic asset within the Helium ecosystem. The only method to pay for network data transmission fees is by burning HNT tokens.

Helium Mobile ($MOBILE)

Introduction:

Helium Mobile aims to establish a decentralized 5G network by replacing large base stations with small, decentralized hotspots. Individuals who share their hotspot facilities are incentivized with token rewards, creating a cost-effective, extensive network. $MOBILE, serving as the governance token for the Helium subDAO, was introduced through a community proposal, HIP53, to expand the Helium network. The token is mined by 5G-CBRS and WiFi hotspots based on data transmission and proof of coverage. Token rewards are based on usage to prevent devices from idling dishonestly. The network is in its early stages, with limited device participation.

Source: https://hellohelium.com/build

Token Overview:

The maximum supply of $MOBILE tokens is 230 billion. Token mining commenced in August 2022, with a halving event scheduled every two years. Both hotspot providers and service providers are required to stake $MOBILE to join the network. Currently, the circulating supply of tokens is 856 billion, representing a circulation rate of 37%. The token is listed on Coinbase.

Data source: Coingecko

Shadow Token ($SHDW)

Introduction:

Shadow, developed by GenesysGo, is a high-performance cloud platform supported by a decentralized operator network. It is specifically designed for Web3 developers. Shadow Drive, a part of this platform, is a decentralized, high-performance, and scalable object storage system. Shadow’s Solana RPC is built on independent operator networks, which decentralize backend APIs by compensating computational fees directly to ecosystem operators.

Historically, Solana required third-party solutions like Arweave and Filecoin for storage, which aren’t compatible and require separate tokens for transactions. Conversely, ShadowDrive, Solana’s native storage system, caters to its increasing storage needs.

Shadow Drive’s low storage costs stem from Solana’s low gas prices and efficient storage task management. Its data distribution and consensus engine, D.A.G.G.E.R., enhances data access speed and file processing. The launch of ShadowDrive V2 and D.A.G.G.E.R testnet was announced on January 17, 2024, with 600,000 SHDW tokens allocated as rewards. In 2024, GenesysGo plans to deploy these to the mainnet and focus on marketing in the latter half of the year.

Token Status:

The total supply of SHDW tokens is 169 million, with 96% currently in circulation. The market capitalization stands at $220 million, and the Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) is $230 million. Currently, SHDW has not been listed on mainstream centralized exchanges; its liquidity is primarily found on Raydium.

source:Coingecko

Overview of Solchat ($CHAT) Token:

Introduction:

Solchat is a communication protocol built on Solana. It enables users to make voice calls, send messages, and more. All group chat data is on-chain, providing privacy through encryption for every user interaction. The current version will soon be succeeded by v2, which enables lower usage fees, supports group chats, and introduces new features such as NFT avatars. The successful implementation of the Facetime feature in its V1 version of the wallet led to an increase in $CHAT’s price as well.

Token Allocation:

● Total supply: 10 million CHAT tokens

○ 50% set aside for presale

○ 10% designated for the liquidity pool (LP)

○ 10% distributed to the team

○ 10% allocated for marketing

○ 10% reserved for centralized exchange listings

Current Market Status:

● Market capitalization: $90.6 million

● Solchat introduced a staking mechanism allowing users to stake their $CHAT tokens in a staking pool. Stakers can earn 80% of the total pool’s revenue share.

Solcard ($SOLC) Token Overview:

Introduction:

Solcard is an encrypted virtual card that accepts $SOL deposits without requiring KYC verification. It simplifies online shopping. Solcard charges a 5% fee for each user deposit and intends to return 50% of these collected fees to $SOLC token holders. The token’s price has benefited from the integration of Solcard with WeChat.

Token Allocation:

● Total supply: 100 million SOLC tokens

○ 80% for fair distribution/sale

○ 10% for marketing

○ 10% reserved for treasury and operations

Current Market Status:

● Market capitalization: $16 million

Liquidity Staking Protocols:

As ETH transitions to PoS and becomes an interest-bearing asset, the threshold for individual direct staking has risen significantly. While staking services provided by exchanges offer convenience, they face scrutiny due to their centralization. In contrast, liquidity staking platforms issue staking proof tokens for use in DeFi protocols, enhancing capital utilization rates. This has increased their popularity in the market. Solana’s token economic model, which includes an inflation mechanism, encourages SOL holders to stake their tokens.

As of October 30, 2023, SOL staking reached a record high of 398 million tokens. Due to the rise in SOL prices, some tokens have been unstaked. Currently, 380 million SOL is staked on Solana, with 357 million SOL staked directly through node staking and 23 million SOL via liquidity staking protocols. The three largest liquidity staking protocols in the ecosystem are Marinade Finance, Jito Network, and Blazestake.

Data source: dune.com/ilemi/solana-staking

Jito network

Introduction:

Jito Network is a liquidity staking protocol launched by Jito Lab. Apart from offering staking rewards to depositors, Jito also captures MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) profits within the Solana network. Its product suite includes: Jito Solana client, Jito Bundles, blockchain builder Jito Block Engine, and MEV distribution system. Due to its MEV business, which allocates a portion of the MEV earnings to JisoSOL, users staking through Jito typically experience higher yields. The protocol’s TVL (Total Value Locked) saw rapid growth before November 2023, a decline in staked amounts post-airdrop snapshot, and a gradual increase in staked amounts after January. According to data from Dune, Jito is currently the largest liquidity staking protocol within the Solana ecosystem, with 9.16 million SOL staked.

Investment Institutions:

● Seed round secured $2.2 million in financing.

● Series A financing raised $10 million, led by Multicoin Capital and Framework Ventures. Solana Ventures and Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, also participated.

Token Details

Jito’s native token is JTO, with a current circulating market cap of $331 million. It was officially launched on December 7, 2023. The total supply is 1 billion tokens, with a current circulation of 11.7%. The primary trading venue is Binance. Within the token supply:

● 34.3% is allocated for community growth.

● 24.5% is distributed to core contributors.

● 25% is reserved for ecosystem development.

16.2% is allocated to investors.

● Within the tokens designated for community growth, 100 million tokens are set aside for airdrops, 80 million are distributed to JitoSOL holders, 15 million are given to validators running the Jito client, and 5 million are allocated to MEV searchers for Jito.

Source: Coingecko

Marinade

Launched in August 2021, Marinade is one of the earliest liquidity staking protocols on Solana. Users can stake $SOL on Marinade to receive mSOL. The unlocking period for mSOL typically lasts for 3 days, aligning with the staking epoch time of the Solana network. Marinade also offers native staking services, allowing users to earn staking rewards without the use of any smart contracts (and consequently, no LST). Currently, there are 6.23 million $SOL staked on Marinade.

As one of the earliest staking protocols on the Solana chain, Marinade’s historical peak in staked $SOL was approximately 9 million tokens. It has since faced competition from platforms like Lido and Jito, which impacted its business. Marinade’s operations have remained relatively stable over time. Its marketing capabilities are considered average, resulting in relatively low market attention.

Token Details:

The total token supply is 1 billion tokens, with a circulating market cap of $78 million. The token is listed on Coinbase. Within the token distribution:

● 35% (350 million tokens) is allocated for liquidity mining.

● Approximately 0.17% (1.7 million tokens) is distributed weekly as rewards to mSOL holders.

Source: Coingecko

Blazestake

Introduction: BlazeStake, which launched in May 2022, provides two staking options on its platform: joining the standard delegation pool or choosing any validator for $SOL staking. Regardless of the choice, stakers receive bSOL as evidence of their liquidity staking rewards. In November 2023, the platform’s network staking volume saw a significant increase, jumping from 600k $SOL to 2.39 million $SOL, marking a 400% growth. This increase could indicate potential upcoming airdrop activities related to the platform.

Token information:

The total token supply is 10 billion, with a current market cap of $19 million.No additional details regarding token distribution or other token-related information were available.

Oracle

Pyth Network (PYTH)

Developed by Douro Labs, Pyth Network provides a price oracle solution. Its primary services include Price Feed, Benchmarks (which provide both on-chain and off-chain historical data), and Entropy (random number) services. Pyth Network uses a “push” model to counter the challenges of the traditional “pull” model, thereby reducing latency, improving scalability, and lowering network costs. The network gathers data from first-party data grids and publishes it to Solana and Pythnet, supporting data from traders, market makers, and DeFi protocols.

In February 2024, Pyth’s trading volume made up almost 20% of the Solana network, and continued to account for nearly 10% even amidst the surge in trading of Solana meme tokens in March. Thanks to its far-reaching partnerships, many protocols have announced airdrops for PYTH stakers.

Investment Institutions:

In December 2023, Pyth announced the completion of strategic financing, with participants including Castle Island Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Wintermute Ventures, Borderless Capital, CMT Digital, Bodhi Ventures, Distributed Global, and Delphi Digital. The financing amount was not disclosed.

Token Information:

The maximum token supply is 1 million, with the current circulating supply standing at 15%. The next token unlock is scheduled for May 20th, which will increase the circulating supply to 36.2%. Staking PYTH tokens enables participation in protocol governance voting. The current staked amount is 127 million tokens, accounting for 8.4% of the circulating supply.

Parallel EVM

Neon（NEON）

Introduction: Neon is an Ethereum Virtual Machine that operates on Solana. It allows developers to build and deploy dApps on Solana using Ethereum tools. This technology is developed by Neon Labs.

NEON has established an EVM-like execution environment. The process involves introducing incentivized Neon EVM operators to Solana to represent Ethereum dApp users and facilitate transactions. Similar to Ethereum, these operators receive transactions when using Neon EVM dApps, package them into Solana transactions, and execute them on the Solana blockchain.

Neon EVM allows dApps based on Solidity and Vyper to take advantage of the Solana network’s low fees, high transaction speeds, and parallel transaction execution capabilities.

Team and Investment:

Neon’s CEO, Marina Guryeva, is a graduate of the European Business School. The CTO, Andrey, has a background in computer science and control systems. Both have significant experience in blockchain technology.

On November 9, 2021, Neon raised $40 million in a funding round led by Jump Capital. Other participants included Three Arrows Capital, Solana Capital, IDEO CoLab Ventures, and more. On November 11, German blockchain incubator Advanced Blockchain AG announced its investment in Neon Labs through a subsidiary.

Token Information:

The total supply of $NEON tokens is 1 billion, with the current circulating supply at 5.77%. The circulating market cap is $100 million, with a Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) of $1.74 billion. $NEON tokens were launched on July 17, 2023. The current circulating portion mainly comes from the 5% released during the public offering. Tokens held by seed round investors, early contributors, the team, and other related parties have a 1-year lock-up period, followed by linear unlocking over the next year. The unlocking period is set for July 17, 2024.

NEON’s primary liquidity venues are Gate.io and Orca. On March 27, Coinbase announced the listing of two tokens, $SHDW and $NEON, on their roadmap.

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