Solana achieved a remarkable comeback after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research in 2022, which was a key backer of the budding smart contract platform. The chain emerged as the go-to ecosystem for retail crypto users and a hotbed of this cycle’s memecoin craze, hosting for example the popular pump.fun protocol. Resurging decentralized finance (DeFi) activity also benefitted the network, making Solana’s on-chain trading ecosystem the third-most-profitable sector in crypto, a recent Coinbase report noted. The solana token was a standout among altcoins over the past year’s mostly bitcoin-dominated bull market, appreciating 275% year-over-year.