Solana Ecological ushering in the era of 2.0? An article reviewing potential projects in the Solana ecosystem
Recently, not only has Solana been performing strongly, but Rollbit, which was first launched on the Solana network, has also entered the top 100 in market value with a growth rate of over 30 times in a year.
In this article, taking into account the absolute and relative values of current Solana ecosystem project data, we will review the old projects with impressive data in the SOL ecosystem, as well as the emerging Solana 2.0 projects, in an attempt to identify the next dark horse.
Established Projects
Marinade Finance
Marinade Finance is currently the project with the highest TVL in the Solana ecosystem. As a liquidity staking platform based on the Solana network, its main goal is to simplify the staking process on Solana. The main feature of Marinade Finance is the provision of "Liquidity Staking" mechanism, allowing users to convert their staked assets into liquidity at any time without waiting for the unlock period. This greatly increases user flexibility and may attract more participants in staking.
Although it may not seem novel now, Marinade, as a protocol launched in 2021, has had a glorious past and was once a top DeFi protocol with a TVL of over $1.5 billion during its peak. Although far from the peak value, it is still the top project in terms of TVL in the Solana ecosystem. The token mSOL obtained by staking SOL on the platform has relatively good liquidity and has been listed on mainstream exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken.
Solend
Solend is a decentralized lending protocol based on Solana, providing a fast and low-cost lending platform.
Solend, backed by numerous star capitals, became the leading lending project in the Solana field as soon as it launched, with a peak TVL of up to $800 million. However, with the Solend team taking over the Whale Liquidation incident, its development momentum has been declining all the way.
However, with the launch of Solend V2, Solend's TVL has also increased from $20 million to nearly $50 million, continuing to hold the position of the top lending protocol in the Solana ecosystem.
Data source: DefiLlama
Orca
Co-founder Grace Kwan brings a minimalist design to Orca, while co-founder Yutaro Mori, who previously worked at the Ethereum Foundation, creates a program that can stand the test of time based on years of experience in protocol-level construction. Although not the most data-optimized DEX during the Solana Summer period, Orca, based on AMM, has demonstrated its true strength and product flexibility as the DEX with the highest TVL and trading volume in the current Solana ecosystem after experiencing a "major test".
Later this year, Orca will also launch the Pro version, providing advanced tools for traders and liquidity providers.
Interestingly, Orca is also an environmentally friendly organization. A portion of the transaction fees on the Orca platform will go into the Orca Climate Fund, which will be used to contribute to efforts to mitigate climate change and sustainable development. As of the time of writing, Orca's climate fund has accumulated over $1.6 million.
Raydium
Raydium, as the first decentralized exchange platform with automated market making in the Solana ecosystem, can be considered one of the cornerstone projects of Solana Summer. The token RAY is also listed on most well-known trading platforms. However, with the announcement of FTX going bankrupt, the Serum protocol, which shares liquidity with Raydium, is under threat, and Raydium's own liquidity pool is under attack. Raydium has suffered a significant blow and its recovery is weaker than that of Orca.
New Projects
Realms (SLP Governance)
Realms provides a platform for Solana builders to create DAOs, manage their members, vote on proposals, and allocate funds. Whether running a multi-signature, NFT community DAO, or community token DAO, Realms provides tools and integrations to help communities thrive.
In simple terms, Realms can be seen as a more comprehensive version of Snapshot. Realms is the main platform in the field of Solana DAO governance, and most mainstream protocols govern through Realms.
Marginfi
Marginfi is a decentralized lending protocol on Solana that prioritizes risk management and provides a secure and reliable solution for users seeking leverage and maximum capital efficiency. The protocol is a set of fully permissionless smart contracts deployed on Solana, with real-time risk management and automatic liquidation. Marginfi can be combined with third-party protocols downstream and upstream, allowing users to unify their on-chain portfolios and access a wide range of decentralized finance (DeFi) services.
Marginfi also introduces an AI robot called Omni to answer questions for users using AI. For example, the introduction of marginfi in the previous paragraph comes from Omni.
Data source: DefiLlama
Marginfi announced on February 23, 2022 that it has completed a $3 million financing round, led by Multicoin Capital and Pantera Capital, with participation from Sino Global Capital, Solana Ventures, and others. Although marginfi has not yet released its token, it recently introduced a points mode, which may be a significant factor contributing to its increasing TVL.
Jito
Jito, a liquidity staking protocol launched at the end of 2022, allows users to earn income from MEV (Miner Extractable Value). The working principle is roughly as follows:
1. Users stake SOL and receive JitoSOL.
2. The Jito staking pool delegates users' SOL to validator nodes that support MEV.
3. These validator nodes auction block space and receive MEV rewards.
4. The MEV rewards are reallocated to the equity pool as additional APY.
Source: DefiLlama
CEO Anatoly Yakovenko of Solana Labs also commented on Jito, "JITO has a great way of maximizing the benefits of MEV for the entire network while minimizing its negative externalities..."
BlazeStake
In addition to Jito, BlazeStake is a newly launched liquidity staking protocol in 2023, with the main purpose of further promoting the decentralization of Solana nodes.
Stakers can choose to stake their SOL through the standard delegation pool (balancing equity among hundreds of validators to support decentralization) or any validator of their choice, while earning liquidity staking rewards in bSOL (such as instant unstaking liquidity, higher staking yield through DeFi, Solana ecosystem token airdrops, etc.).
Data Source: DefiLlamaNFT Track
As the two largest projects in terms of trading volume on Solana, DeGods and y 00 ts chose to migrate out of the Solana network at the end of 2022. Magic Eden also chose multi-chain deployment, gradually supporting Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other ecosystems. These choices dealt an indelible blow to the Solana NFT track at that time. But as Solana gradually recovered from its growing pains and the ecosystem continued to develop steadily, the NFT ecosystem of SOL also gradually revitalized with new vitality.
Data Source: CryptoSlam
As of the time of writing, Solana NFT's 24-hour trading volume is second only to Ethereum.
Tensor
Tensor is a professional NFT trading platform based on Solana. It shares similarities with Blur and offers the following features:
· Fastest data: Tensor provides fast data processing capabilities, which is crucial for NFT trading because NFT prices can experience significant fluctuations in a short period of time.
· Batch operations: Tensor allows users to perform batch operations, greatly improving their trading efficiency.
· Advanced orders: Tensor offers a range of advanced order types to help users better manage their transactions.
Data Source: The Block
With Blur leading the way and Tensor launching with a token model, the trading volume has quickly risen. Looking at the data from the past month, Tensor has surpassed the veteran king of Solana, Magic Eden, becoming the number one NFT marketplace of Solana.
Mad Lads(Backpack)
In addition to the new NFT platforms, let's take a look at the NFT project with the highest trading volume and market value on Solana recently - Mad Lads. This is an NFT project released by Solana wallet Backpack in April this year. With its exquisite American comic style and the good accumulation of the Backpack team in the Solana ecosystem, Mad Lads has now been widely accepted by the Solana ecosystem. Zeta Markets, which once won first place in the Solana Hackathon, has also collaborated with Mad Lads to host a social trading competition called Mad Wars.
Mad Lads total supply is 10000 tokens
Backpack's parent company Coral completed a $20 million financing in 2022 and launched the encrypted wallet Backpack. Now Backpack plans to create an iPhone-like App Hub. It is worth noting that current Mad Lads holders can also stake their NFTs held in Backpack wallet to earn points.
Solana Monkey Business (SMB)
The well-established project SMB is still developing. In 2023, it launched the third generation SMB Gen 3. By stacking multiple series of SMB, its market value exceeded that of Mad Lads. SMB can be said to be the first brand of Solana NFT. SMB also launched Monke Dao, Solana's first community-owned and operated NFT DAO, and has hosted multiple events. It has also invested over $1,600,000 in the Monke Ventures portfolio.
If you take a closer look, you will find that the Solana ecosystem is far from being stagnant as some might think. Aggregator Jupiter, stablecoin protocol UXD, decentralized domain name protocol Bonfid, and new and old projects like Helium, Star Atlas, and game-related NFT project The Heist that have migrated to the Solana network all have new progress. With Solana's further development, the ecosystem will demonstrate even more vitality.
