Solana (SOL -1.21%) shot to prominence after it was released in 2020 as a cheaper and faster alternative to Ethereum. Based on its current market worth of $13.5 billion, Solana is now the seventh most valuable cryptocurrency.
However, the Solana blockchain has had numerous performance issues in recent months, including two significant outages since May. More troubling data for Solana fans was released earlier this week. More than $8 million was stolen from around 8,000 Solana wallets by an unknown hacker(s).
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Is it time to promote this cryptocurrency?
On Tuesday, the attack began when traders began reporting unusual switch activity with three Solana wallets (Phantom, Slope, and TrustWallet) on social media. By Wednesday, the whole breadth and gravity of the attack had become clear. Someone has gained access to hundreds of cryptocurrency wallets and was stealing millions of dollars’ worth of Solana, Solana-based tokens, and USD Coin.
The Solana Foundation found that the compromised addresses were initially generated, imported, or used for Slope cellular pockets-related activities. Unfortunately, the exact cause of the leak of sensitive personal information from Slope to a utility monitoring agency remains unknown. Regardless, the owner of a non-public key can allow cryptographic transactions from the associated wallets. Once the hacker had that information, taking the money was a breeze.
In a nutshell, it appears that Slope is alone to blame, and contrary to what the Solana Basis might have you believe, there is no evidence that Solana itself was compromised.
Is it time to promote?
Even though investing in Solana is risky, the most recent attack on Solana wallets should not sway investors. This issue has nothing to do with the cryptography used to keep blockchain data secure or the blockchain protocol itself. The real question is whether or not Solana has a strong financial argument.
The bullish case can be stated as follows: In 2018, the number of active developers on the platform increased by 385 percent, faster than any other blockchain save Fantom. Even better, Solana ranks fourth by total builders, and this attention has transformed the platform into a robust community of dApps and DeFi providers.
Solana’s Magic Eden, for instance, is the second busiest NFT market right now, based on total consumers over the past 30 days. In addition, Solana is the fifth-largest DeFi ecosystem overall in the cryptocurrency industry, with about $2 billion in blockchain-based assets.
Quick transactions, cheap transaction fees, and a forward-thinking in-house development team are all factors in this uptake.
To that end, Solana introduced its Solana Pay service earlier this year, which enables customers to make instantaneous purchases at participating merchants using stablecoins such as USD Coin. Given that Solana Pay is both faster and cheaper than existing card networks, it has the potential to significantly shake up the financial sector. Saga, an Android phone securely integrated with the Solana blockchain, was released only recently, allowing users easy access to the dApps and DeFi providers available on the network.
Demand for the underlying SOL coin should rise, pushing its value higher if Solana-based dApps and DeFi firms continue to gain traction with buyers and dealers. If investors truly believe that story, they might not want to promote Solana right now.
