The price of Solana, a cryptocurrency that was once hyped by former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried, tumbled on Wednesday according to CoinDesk data, amid concerns that the crypto’s largest holders will sell it.
In the summer of 2021, when Solana Labs raised $314.2 million from prominent investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund founded by Bankman-Fried, invested heavily into the project. Bankman-Fried also created a decentralized ecosystem called “Serum” on Solana.
But after FTX declared bankruptcy in November, traders sold off their Solana, and the price dropped 65% from around $37 to less than $12. It’s currently 94.09% below its high from a year ago.
Multiple projects on Solana, including NFT marketplace Magic Eden, and NFT project DeGods, recently shared plans to transition off Solana to Ethereum.
Co-founder of Solana Anatoly Yakovenko said the move has been “bittersweet to watch,” in a thread on Twitter. “What @solana needs is twenty more unicorns that are so ambitious that @solana can’t contain them,” he continued.
Solana did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MarketWatch.
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