Solana made a remarkable comeback after the collapse of Sam Bankman Fried's FTX and Alameda Research in 2022. Alameda Research was a major backer of the up-and-coming smart contract platform. The chain has emerged as the go-to ecosystem for retail cryptocurrency users and has been a hotbed of meme coin crazes this cycle, hosting the popular pump.fun protocol, for example. A resurgence in decentralized finance (DeFi) activity has also benefited the network, making Solana’s on-chain trading ecosystem the third most profitable sector in cryptocurrencies, a recent Coinbase report notes. . The Solana token was a standout among altcoins during last year's Bitcoin-dominated bull market, rising 275% year-over-year.
