Solana crashes 55% in November, but NFT trading is still booming

by James · December 1, 2022

Solana has been on a downtrend since the collapse of FTX, as investors have sold their SOL holdings due to its connection with the Sam Bankman-Fried crypto empire.

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SOL down 55%

According to CryptoSlate data, SOL was one of the worst performing digital assets in the last 30 days. The digital asset is down over 55% and is trading at $13.85 at press time.

Solana started the month strong, rising above $35 on November 5, but things took a turn for the worse when reports of FTX’s insolvency emerged. The blockchain network’s value was negatively affected when Binance revealed intentions to acquire FTX.

Market analysts had speculated that Binance could prioritize its tokens, pushing SOL’s value further down. But the Changpeng Zhao-led exchange eventually walked out of the deal.

During this chaos, Solana crashed to as low as $11.01.

Solana DeFi ecosystem TVL down 70%

Solana’s thriving decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem was also hit by R&D around the network. According to DeFillama data, total value locked (TVL) on the ecosystem crashed by as much as 70% in the last 30 days.

Solana TVL Decline — Solana TVL (Source: DappRadar)

TVL fell to just over $300 million at press time, compared to $962.31 million in early November and nearly $9 billion in early December 2021.

Leading Solana-based protocols such as Solend, Raydium, Orca and Marinade Finance all say TVL is falling by over 60%. Serum, a DEX linked to Sam Bankman-Fried, declared itself “defunct” and is dependent on a joint effort to share the protocol.

Solana NFTs thrive despite downturns

Meanwhile, Solana’s NFT market has continued steady growth.

In November, Solana DeFi TVL dropped by 70%, but Solana NFT data is still growing, with an average transaction volume increasing by 67.7%; The blue chip index rose 28.9% to 82.109. Solana still has significant NFT projects, players and communities. https://t.co/4ua9loNzrO

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) 1 December 2022

Wu Blockchain reported that average transaction volume for Solana NFTs was up 67.7%. He added that blue-chip index increased by 28.9% to reach 82.109 SOL.

DappRadar data showed that some of the top Solana NFT collections, such as y00ts and DeGods, have had massive sales over the past 30 days. According to the data aggregator, sales of y00ts increased by 528.82% to 7,942, and DeGods recorded a 324.12% increase in sales.

Solana NFTs trading volume also increased 141% on OpenSea to $255 million and 62% on Magic Eden to $94.48 million.