According to DeFillama data, the Solana blockchain reached an annual peak in total locked asset value (TVL) on October 2nd, reaching $335 million.
According to the latest data, the TVL currently stands at $329.59 million. However, this increase demonstrates investors’ interest in the network’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
This increase is a significant deviation from the trend of last year. In 2022, Solana’s DeFi TVL decreased, affected by the decline in the value of SOL and the overall market downturn. Associating the project with the bankrupt FTX further exacerbated this decline. However, the network experienced growth this year, and the TVL rose from $210 million to its current levels. This represents an increase of about 40% since the beginning of the year.
Yet, despite this recent growth, Solana’s DeFi TVL remains well below its all-time high when it surpassed $10 billion at the peak of the 2021 bull market. During that time, the Solana blockchain was mentioned as a potential “Ethereum killer.”
Solana Still Faces Significant Challenges
The Solana ecosystem is showing notable growth this year, being adopted by major traditional institutions like Visa and Shopify. However, the blockchain network still faces significant challenges.
Solana’s SOL token was one of many digital assets labeled as a security by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its legal actions against major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase.
This classification led to the rapid removal of the asset by some trading platforms, such as Revolut and Bakkt.
Additionally, the network’s token faced substantial selling pressure, with the court approving the move of bankrupt FTX to sell a large digital asset amount, including a position in SOL exceeding $1 billion.
