Solana raises over $300M in a bid to compete with Ethereum

• Solana Labs has announced the successful completion of a $314.15M private token sale.
• The project has over the last year received major support and rallied by over 6,000 percent.

In a blog post, the Solana project confirmed that it had raised over $300 million in a private token sale. The funding round was carried out through Solana coins. The amount raised will go a long way to develop a faster blockchain as the project looks to compete with Ethereum.

The project is especially looking to tap into the DeFi market which has grown exponentially over the last few years and looks set to continue dominating in the future. Participants have viewed Solana as a next-generation blockchain, one that can compete or compliment Ethereum. More so, with Ethereum currently struggling with scaling issues and high gas costs, Solana is looking to seize the chance by offering users scaling without having to compromise on security or composability.

After launching the Beta mainnet in 2020, the Solana project has gained major traction over the last few months. Among its biggest supporter is FTX exchange chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried. Not only has he been a prominent backer of the project but is also developing the Serum derivatives exchange on the network. Bankman-Fried has in the past stated that the decision to launch the decentralized exchange on Solana was primarily influenced by the speed offered by the blockchain.

While Ethereum remains to be the most popular blockchain to build on, it can not yet match Solana numbers in terms of scaling, and this is partly achieved through its use of a new consensus mechanism known as Proof of History.

Although the team revealed that the funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital with participation from notable firms such as CoinShares, Alameda Research, and BlockChange Ventures, it didn’t provide the exact date when the funding round was completed. However, the project is clear that in part, the funds will be used to start an incubation studio for applications and platforms on Solana.

“We’ve been following Solana for a long time and believe it could massively scale the DeFi ecosystem. In our view, Solana is a compliment to Ethereum..” stated Olaf Carlson-Wee, the Managing Partner at Polychain Capital.

Solana (SOL) price performance

Over the last year, Solana coin has gained more than 6,000 percent making it one of the best performers in the crypto market. With a market cap of more than $11 billion, the token is 13th in market ranking at the time of press. Although the token is only recording a marginal gain over the last 24 hours, it is up by nearly 20 percent over the last seven days. If it can keep up the current momentum, SOL can make the top ten most elite coins in the market.