Solana-Based Projects Continue To Attract Investor Funding Ahead Of Token Launches The Solana ecosystem has been of great interest to developers and investors lately. Not only is the native SOL token gaining steam, but several projec...

The Solana ecosystem has been of great interest to developers and investors lately. Not only is the native SOL token gaining steam, but several projects on this blockchain completed funding rounds. So there is much to look forward to in this ecosystem over the coming months.

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The Ongoing Success Of Solana

A new solution needs to be found in a world where the top public blockchains are either too slow to use or suffer from high transaction fees. Efficiency and speed are two crucial aspects when trying to ring blockchain into the mainstream. Unfortunately, neither Bitcoin or Ethereum fits that bill currently, allowing for alternative blockchains to throw their hats into the ring. Solana is one of these competitors that, while still in beta, has proven to be of tremendous appeal.

Despite a recent network outage that lasted over 17 hours, developers remain keen on building applications for the Solana ecosystem. The unforeseen network issue occurred when users pushed the blockchain past 400,000 transactions per second. Theoretically, it can handle up to 750,000 TPS, although it seems there needs to be some tweaking. Nevertheless, Solana is operational again with the help of the Validator community, and services have been resumed.

The unexpected outage has some repercussions for projects building and running on Solana. However, the mainnet is still in beta, and there may be hiccups along the way. Such a technical issue is unlikely to dissuade investors from contributing to up-and-coming projects, though. Several ventures have attracted funding recently, and their associated tokens are on the move.

The Established Solana Projects

Two projects stand out in this ecosystem to date. Solana is a potent blockchain that can serve many use cases, ranging from decentralized finance to non-fungible tokens and everything in between.

Solrise Finance, a project bringing non-custodial solutions to the Solana ecosystem, raised $3.4 million in funding last July. The fund management and investment protocol will make DeFi more accessible to investor audiences. Moreover, users can create their own funds to gain asset exposure across the Solana ecosystem. Fund managers will never own investor funds, and investors can enter and exit positions as they see fit. SLRS, the native utility token, notes a 147.2% increase in the past month, confirming this project has merit.

The other "big" project on Solana is Serum. The decentralized exchange and ecosystem are created with the help of the Solana Foundation and offer an on-chain central limit order book and matching engine. The project completed a $20 million seed round in July 2020, with ten investors contributing funding. In the past year, the value of the SRM token - used for reducing trading fees and staking - noted a 426% price increase. A strong performance as decentralized exchanges gain momentum.

Upcoming Projects Secure Funding

As more and more developers want to build on Solana, there will be opportunities for investors to be part of such ventures at an early stage. Several up-and-coming concepts have secured funding recently, indicating investors see the benefit in building on the Solana ecosystem.

DeFi Land, a decentralized finance and gaming project, has secured $4.1 million in investment to launch a new DeFi "game". By gamifying the concept of decentralized finance, more people can get acquainted with this new paradigm of financial services and products. Over 40 investors contributed to the funding round for this agriculture simulation game. In addition, offering educational solutions for those who want to explore alternative finance solutions can bring more people into the DeFi fold.

In an industry where decentralization is crucial, it can be tricky to source sufficient liquidity for DeFi and decentralized trading purposes. Cyclos, a concentrated liquidity market maker, built on Solana, aims to solve this problem. Its private and public funding round resulted in a $2.1 million investment. Cyclos aims to build the first concentrated liquidity automated market maker on the blockchain. That will benefit Serum and potentially DeFi projects coming to the Solana ecosystem.

A few days ago, SolRazr secured $1.5 million in seed funding. SolRazr will help projects efficiently raise capital and allow investors to participate at a fractional cost as a venture platform. It is not just a launchpad, as the team will provide various developer tools to help anyone build new products and services on the Solana blockchain. Ultimately, SolRazr aims to become the go-to fundraising and developer platform for any project in the Solana ecosystem.

Closing Thoughts

As so many projects successfully secure funding to build on Solana, the excitement continues to build. The three recent projects listed above all secured investments before releasing their native tokens. Those tokens can give investors another opportunity to benefit from the success of these projects.

Those who invested in Serum and Solrise early on reaped the rewards. It is plausible that the projects securing funding in the past few months may see similar success once their tokens come to market. Their success will not hinge on token sales and the money raised from it, as they have the financial backing from VCs and other parties to build their ecosystem.