In early 2023, Solana (SOL) has been one of the biggest surprises. Solana has posted a jaw-dropping 33.58 percent increase in the first week of 2019. There has been a huge recovery in the crypto market since 2022 when it was down nearly 94 percent. Now what needs to be observed is Solana’s ability to keep up this momentum throughout the year.
In light of a terrible 2022 and the Solana price today, experts believe that 2023 can actually be a turning point.
Exceptional value
One important factor has made Solana a value play in the cryptocurrency market. One thing is the loss of 94 percent of a silly meme coin; another is the loss of value of a Layer 1 blockchain once regarded as the next Ethereum. Solana is now worthless since investors are essentially stating that it is worthless. Solana is not only about cryptocurrencies but also about decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, blockchain gaming, and Metaverse.
While a few big names in NFT are abandoning Solana, this cryptocurrency has much to offer. Solana is now the second-biggest player in the NFT market, and its performance has held up well despite the FTX market meltdown. It is also worth noting that Messari, a cryptocurrency research firm, reports that Solana’s underlying fundamentals, as measured by user base, network stability, and transaction activity, improved during the FTX drama.
Many believe Solana was unfairly punished for its connections with FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried, its former CEO. When investors discovered he had promoted and financed the cryptocurrency, it fell rapidly before stabilizing at around $10 at the end of the year. The stigma associated with Solana is expected to fade by 2023, and investors will be able to value it on its fundamentals once more.
Ecosystem growth in Solana
It is also important to think about the overall Solana ecosystem. It includes all the decentralized apps and projects built with Solana, the NFTs generated on the Solana blockchain, and the developer community. Clearly, the Solana ecosystem is incredibly vibrant, and Solana took extensive steps to make sure its developers would not be left in the lurch. Solana Hacker House is planning a series of events in 2023 to promote its global tour. There were 12,000 developers participating in this tour in 2022, hitting 24 cities.
While it can be difficult to gauge overall investor sentiment about Solana, the recent viral success of Bonk, the first-ever Solana meme coin, shows how the Solana developer community appears to be rallying around Solana this year. The meme coin has gone from being a small token of appreciation to members of the Solana community to being a story picked up by the mainstream media as proof of Solana’s resurgence. The sudden buzz around Solana is what led to the crypto’s early standout performance in January.
And, finally, do not forget about all the projects on tap at Solana for 2023. The big project to keep an eye on is the formal launch of Solana Mobile, which showcases the world’s first-ever crypto phone. The initiative is an important part of Solana’s entry into the world of Web3, which Solana thinks will be based around end-to-end mobile experiences. When integrated with Solana Pay (which launched in February 2022), Solana Mobile offers a very powerful value proposition. It is hard to think of another blockchain network that has its own native mobile device for blockchain experiences.
Final words: Is Solana worth your money as a long-term investment this year?
Even though Solana looks enticing as a short-term play to take advantage of the new crypto buzz at the start of a new year, its long-term prospects are even more exciting, believe crypto analysts. If you compare some of the Solana price predictions for 2023, you can clearly understand why. According to some crypto analysts, Solana could reach $25.44 by the end of the year, purely based on technical factors. In that case, you can nearly double your investment based on Solana’s current price of $13. Considering all the exciting new initiatives happening within the Solana ecosystem, I think Solana can reach even greater heights. Therefore, market experts are extremely bullish on Solana in the long run.