On October 1, Solana experienced an hour-long service disruption — the blockchain’s twelfth such disruption in 2022 — and it was particularly harsh after a month of rising NFT mints and daily volume comparable to Ethereum.
Delphi Digital said Solana’s trading volume went up by 24% in the last six weeks, accounting for 7% of the total.
Solana saw higher daily trade volumes in September compared to Ethereum, according to data from Dune Analytics. There was a 34% monthly increase in the number of unique buyers, according to the same data.
Despite a marked downturn in NFT trade volumes between April and June, proof-of-stake blockchains still dominate NFT sales. Bore
d Ape Yacht Club and Crypto Punks, for example, are the most valuable blue-chip projects on the network.
“Keep in mind that USD value is still far higher on Ethereum,” Sam Martin, a Blockworks Research Analyst, said. “Project creators can wash trade on Solana to artificially pump volume due to low transaction fees, whereas on Ethereum, that would be far more expensive.”
Nansen found that Solana’s under $200 trades and lower gas fees gave participants “more interaction and participation” than the Ethereum network.
Nansen thinks that Ethereum’s role in the NFT sector will be to act as a store of value, while Solana will be famous for its trading, new categories, and creators looking to reach a global market.
Solana’s “y00ts: mint t00b” project was the highest-trading 30-day volume on both OpenSea and Magic Eden. Dust Labs, the firm behind Solana’s most important NFT collection, DeGods, released y00ts at the beginning of September. The design reveal has yet to take place.
Metaplex, an NFT protocol for Solana creators, used Metaplex NFTs on Metaplex, an NFT protocol for creators on Solana. More than 4 million wallets have held Metaplex NFTs as of late, making it similarly prominent to Ethereum’s ERC-721 standard, according to the company. Solana NFTs are minted every 18 days through Metaplex.
The NFT market may well have experienced a rapid pick-up following an end-of-2021 slide that decimated the collective market capitalization of all digital collectibles, particularly Solana.
Hess thinks Solana could benefit from betting on the idea that NFTs may someday function as “identity tokens” and foster a community, including the especially tight-knit holders of y00ts and Degods, according to Stephen Hess, the former Solana Labs product chief and current Metaplex CEO.
According to Hess, “When you change your profile photo, you’re signalling your membership to a group. You’re constructing your identity online. When we zoom out, we see this as the beginning of decentralized social networking.”
Even though there is no indication that a flippening is imminent, Solana is making a strong impression. Proof-of-stake protocol Flipside Crypto reports that 9.89 million cumulative trades worth $1.1 billion have been executed on Solana, while Ethereum has made 13.38 million cumulative trades worth $16.5 billion.
