Solana (SOL)
These projects include NFT marketplaces like Magic Eden to DeFi trading platforms like Raydium and Orca. SOL skyrocketed from $1.33 in December 2020 to over $250 in November 2021 before finally reaching it's current price today.
A large part of Solana's success as a layer-1 blockchain and direct competitor to Ethereum is its unique proof-of-history (PoH) consensus developed by Solana founder and lead developer Anatoly Yakovenko. PoH allows for blockchain scalability as well as fast and cost-efficient transactions.
In late 2022, Solana came under scrutiny following the declared bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX, which was directly invested in, and held a significant portion of, the SOL circulating supply.
Why do people think SOL has value?
SOL is the native coin of the network, which means it's used to pay for transaction fees (gas) and can be staked in return for yield. It's a common trading pair for many of the DeFi protocols or NFT marketplaces on the network.

