Solana is currently one of the fastest blockchains on the market. This makes it a very popular choice for both investors and users looking for a worthwhile competitor in the dApp space. Solana even leaves the most popular option – Ethereum – in the dust with its speed and cost. But which projects built on Solana are worth investing in in 2023?
Introduction About Solana Projects
Solana is a third-generation blockchain built to solve the problems that plague Ethereum. These include heavy network congestion and astronomically high costs. Launched in 2020, the Solana blockchain has been highly successful in addressing these concerns.
The project does this through its novel consensus mechanism, Proof of History (PoH). Nodes on a blockchain regularly have to communicate with each other, which can be a time-consuming process. PoH timestamps transactions so that nodes no longer need to communicate and reach a consensus based on time. This has led to speeds over 10,000 times faster than alternatives.
Read more: What is Solana
Solana can also be used by developers to create decentralised applications. Its development environment uses Rust, which is a popular programming language in the industry. These applications and projects may be in the form of DeFi apps, NFTs or even games.
Top 10 Solana Projects in 2023
Here are the top Solana projects you should look out for in 2023.
Raydium
Raydium is an Automated Market Maker on the Solana blockchain. An AMM makes it possible for decentralised exchanges to operate seamlessly and fulfil orders instantly, without the need for a counterparty. This is done by accessing various “liquidity pools”, which are smart contracts that hold crypto tokens for lending.
Like other AMMs, Raydium users can deposit their tokens in liquidity pools. They earn liquidity provider rewards for providing their capital to other users on the network. This is a simple and convenient way to earn income passively.
RAY is trading at $0.257 with a market cap of $44,292,210 at the time of writing.
Mercurial Finance
Mercurial Finance is a decentralised finance protocol that helps you maximise your returns from Solana assets. It uses a dynamic market-making system that automatically allocates capital where it is required. The protocol supports stablecoins and optimises their flow for efficient liquidity provision.
MER is trading at $0.01787 at the time of writing and has a market capitalisation of $10,550,000.
Orca
Orca is one of the largest decentralised exchanges in the Solana ecosystem. It allows you to exchange tokens swiftly and efficiently. Its performance can rival Ethereum DEXs thanks to the Solana network’s blazing-fast speeds.
It is a general-purpose DEX that allows you to provide liquidity, exchange tokens and earn yield rewards. ORCA is trading at $1.21 at the time of writing with a market cap of $42,651,252.
STEPN
Move-to-earn applications have become very popular recently. STEPN is one of the largest “web3 lifestyle” applications that also support Solana. The platform allows you to earn tokens just by walking and running. It thus rewards you for your daily exercise with crypto.
Read more: Play to Earn vs Move to Earn
To get started, just purchase one of their sneaker NFTs. These can be levelled up and customised to earn more tokens each day. STEPN has exploded in popularity because it has effective gamification of exercise.
GMT is trading at $0.5068 and has a market cap of $306,005,332 at the time of writing.
Star Atlas
Star Atlas is a metaverse project built using Unreal Engine 5. It is a sci-fi fantasy game that involves space exploration, flight simulation and strategy in high-quality environments. You can explore several planets, fly spaceships from the 27th century and customize your character extensively.
You can also trade your in-game NFTs and items on the platform’s marketplace. This gives you an avenue to monetize your assets and earnings in the game.
ATLAS is trading at $0.0036 with a market capitalization of $35,602,842 at the time of writing.
Coin 98
Coin 98 presents the opportunity to bridge traditional finance and decentralised financial services. It does this through an extensive suite of products including a crypto wallet, the Space Gate cross-chain bridge and its own exchange.
C98 is the utility token of the platform, which allows you to pay network fees, access governance and even earn staking rewards. C98 is currently priced at $0.2235 with a market cap of $48,480,901.
Audius
Launched in 2018, Audius is a blockchain-based music streaming platform. It seeks to solve many hurdles in the music industry, such as opacity in ownership and the prevalence of middlemen.
Artists can publish their content on the platform for free, as long as they have AUDIO tokens staked. The platform then connects them to interested users, who can then purchase artist tokens or recordings to monetise their earnings directly.
AUDIO is trading at $0.1921 and has a market capitalisation of $180,699,000 at the time of writing.
Read more: What is Audius (AUDIO)
Civic
Civic is an information system that helps you manage and safeguard your identity. It transforms the way we think about identity and personal information by giving you access to platforms without sharing excessive amounts of your data. It thus provides organisations and individuals more control over their data and how it is authenticated.
CVC is trading at $0.107 and has a market cap of $77,102,000.
Larix
Larix is a financial platform based on the metaverse. It offers a dynamic interest rate model to create efficient lending on the Solana network. This enables various tokens, NFTs, synthetic assets and others to be fully utilised.
The platform has several investors and partnerships that allow it to expand its services into new asset classes and create liquidity in the real economy. These include the Solana foundation, Gate.io, Bitmart and Polygon.
LARIX is trading at $0.0003 with a market capitalisation of $3,352,000.
Ren
Formerly known as Republic Protocol, Ren is a protocol that offers interoperability between many blockchains. It lowers the barriers between different projects and makes access to finance easier for users everywhere.
DeFi applications can use the Ren protocol to integrate tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are not available on Solana. This also avoids the need for these tokens to be “wrapped”.
REN is trading at $0.08232 and has a market cap of $82,245,642.
Read more: 10 Best Move to Earn Crypto
Final Thoughts
This list includes some of the best current Solana projects. 2023 is also expected to bring with it a better year for crypto, so expect some promising upcoming Solana projects throughout the year. Be sure to thoroughly review and research each project before you choose to invest in them.
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