Solana

Solana is a Layer 1 blockchain built for speed and scale. Anatoly Yakovenko founded Solana in 2017 to address scalability challenges in existing blockchain platforms. While Bitcoin and Ethereum were slow and expensive under load, Solana was engineered to process tens of thousands of transactions per second at fractions of a cent each. That ambition made it one of the most closely watched blockchain networks in the world.

Solana’s origins trace back to late 2017, when Yakovenko published a whitepaper introducing Proof of History, a timekeeping technique for distributed systems designed to automate transaction ordering and deliver fast speeds. Think of Proof of History as a cryptographic timestamp built into the blockchain so nodes don’t waste time arguing about event order. Yakovenko teamed up with former Qualcomm colleague Greg Fitzgerald, and they released the first internal testnet and project whitepaper in February 2018. The Solana blockchain officially launched on March 16, 2020.

Solana’s hybrid consensus model combines Proof of History with Proof of Stake. The network can handle up to 65,000 transactions per second, substantially higher than many other blockchains. Transaction fees typically run well below $0.001, making it practical for developers building applications requiring high transaction volumes. This is not a theoretical edge; it directly determines which apps are economically viable to build and use.

Solana’s ecosystem covers DeFi, NFTs, consumer apps, mobile-first experiences, and real-world utility. In decentralized finance, protocols like Jupiter, Raydium, and Orca let users trade tokens, provide liquidity, and earn yield on chain. NFT artists, collectors, and developers operate on Solana because of its high throughput and low-cost infrastructure, using NFTs to represent digital art, music, and virtual real estate. Beyond those areas, projects like Helium migrated to Solana to coordinate decentralized wireless infrastructure networks. Solana Pay enables merchants to accept stablecoin payments with near-zero fees. In September 2023, Visa announced support for the Solana blockchain to send payments to merchants using the USDC stablecoin. That partnership signaled that traditional financial institutions were taking Solana seriously as a payment rail.

SOL’s price was about $0.75 when the mainnet launched in March 2020. The growth that followed was remarkable. After a successful funding round in June 2021, SOL’s price grew nearly 12,000% that year, reaching a market capitalization over $70 billion. Then came turbulence. The biggest blow came in November 2022 with the collapse of the FTX exchange. FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research were major backers of the Solana ecosystem, holding significant SOL and deeply involved in multiple projects. SOL’s price dropped sharply alongside the FTX bankruptcy. Many observers wrote Solana off at that point.

They were wrong. Despite major setbacks in 2022, the Solana ecosystem rallied in 2023, avoiding the troubled fate many had predicted. Solana’s market capitalization hit an all-time high of $92.5 billion in March 2024. The network broke records with 1.61 million new addresses created daily and daily transaction volume exceeding $3.79 billion. SOL reached a new all-time high of $294 in January 2025. By late October 2025, spot Solana ETFs began trading in the United States after SEC approval.

Solana raised significant institutional backing from the start. Between April 2018 and July 2019, Solana Labs raised over $20 million through private token sales from investors including Multicoin Capital. In total, Solana has raised $374 million across six funding rounds from 93 institutional investors, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), 500 Global, and Polychain Capital. Andreessen Horowitz, through its a16z crypto fund, is one of the most influential venture capital firms in blockchain, and its backing signaled broad institutional confidence in Solana’s long-term potential. In June 2020, Solana Labs announced the Solana Foundation, a non-profit that owns the intellectual property of the Solana protocol and funds development and community initiatives.

SOL is the native cryptocurrency of the Solana network and does more than store value. It is used to pay network fees, for staking, and governance. It also supports smart contracts and decentralized applications, DeFi platforms, gaming, and NFT marketplaces. When you stake SOL, you delegate it to validators who process transactions and secure the network. In return, SOL holders earn rewards. Solana’s initial inflation rate is 8% annually, decreasing 15% year-over-year toward a long-term fixed rate of 1.5%. Staking SOL is not just passive income; it directly supports the network’s decentralization and security.

SOL is listed on centralized exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, OKX, and Bybit, making it accessible to most retail buyers. However, centralized exchanges have limitations. They are not built for buying or selling large token amounts, acquiring locked tokens, or trading SAFT notes. That’s where Acquire.Fi’s OTC and Secondaries Marketplace is the right tool.

To buy Solana OTC, browse existing listings in the Acquire.Fi marketplace and engage directly with sellers at your preferred price and volume. If no listing matches your needs, submit a new Buy listing with your target valuation and token amount.

To sell Solana OTC and exit a position, you have the same flexibility. You can engage with active buy listings or submit a new Sell listing with your preferred terms. Acquire.Fi then handles the operational side of the deal.

The Acquire.Fi team conducts background checks on both parties, facilitates NDA execution, and introduces the buyer and seller to each other. The buyer and seller remain responsible for their own due diligence and payment settlement. Acquire.Fi is not a broker-dealer, but the team actively assists throughout the process to help both sides get the deal closed.