Solana In 2023: A Look Back At Top Storylines, Coin Surge — Plus Partnerships With Visa, Mastercard, Shopify And More
By Benzinga
Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) will end 2023 on a high note after soaring to a new 52-week high in December and becoming one of the most talked about cryptocurrencies.
Solana Solstice: Interest in the digital asset exploded in recent weeks thanks to many items, including airdrops like Jito (CRYPTO: JTO), to people who participated in a Solana-based liquid staking protocol.
The launch of certain meme coins like Bonk (CRYPTO: BONK) and Dogwifhat (CRYPTO: WIF) have also sparked interest in Solana and Solana non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The cryptocurrency, which launched in 2020, is now the fourth-largest digital coin with a market capitalization of $45.1 billion.
Solana shared a recap of 2023 on social media, which it dubbed the “Solana Solstice.”
“In 2023, the community started a movement only possible on Solana – while Solana became a network of choice for developers and institutions,” the post read.
The thread of tweets starts with Bonk, which people started receiving in December 2022 for participating in the Solana community. The crypto has received recent attention and was even added to the Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) platform.
Solana highlighted the Solana Saga mobile phone, which began shipping in 2023. In December 2023, the phone was sold out, with many racing to buy the phones that came with Bonk allocation.
The cryptocurrency also highlighted the migration of the Helium Network to Solana, which was completed in April.
Solana began tracking the network’s carbon footprint in real-time at SolanaClimate.com in March 2023. The Solana Foundation has pledged to use offsets to make the network carbon-neutral.
In April, Solana Labs released a ChatGPT plugin, which brought “the power of artificial intelligence and blockchain together.”
“Solana Labs has created an open-source reference implementation for a ChatGPT plugin that lets users interact with the Solana network directly from ChatGPT.”
The plugin allows Solana users to check their wallet balances, transfer tokens and purchase NFTs.
Partnerships: Solana Foundation worked with Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) to “improve trust, security & interoperability between web2 and web3 apps” in April.
The credit card company announced the launch of Mastercard Crypto Credential, which it said would establish standards and infrastructure for businesses using blockchain networks.
Solana was listed as one of the public blockchain network organizations that will bring Mastercard Crypto Credential to developers in their ecosystem to help Mastercard collaborate on verification for NFTs, ticketing and other payment solutions.
In September, Visa Inc (NYSE:V) expanded its USDC stablecoin settlement pilot to Solana, which came after months of research. Visa said the stablecoin settlement capabilities would be its “next step in modernizing cross-border money movement.”
“By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury,” Visa Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield said.
In August, Solana Pay announced integration with Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP), an e-commerce company for businesses. Solana said the integration offers “fast, frictionless, and accessible USDC stablecoin payments.”
Solana said at the time that Shopify payments could help consumers unlock token-gated offers, cross-border payments, NFT-based loyalty programs and more.
Summarizing up the 2023 year, Solana said it kept building and doubled down on the network.
“The Solana ecosystem is just getting started.”
SOL Price Action: Solana trades at $105.18 versus a 52-week trading range of $8.14 to $125.19. The cryptocurrency is up over 800% year-to-date in 2023, outperforming both Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), which are up 151% and 81% year-to-date respectively.
Image: Shutterstock
