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Solana-based Burnt Finance scores $8M fund led by Animoca Brands

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Burnt Finance, an NFT auction protocol built on the Solana [SOL] blockchain has announced securing an $8 million A round series spearheaded by Hong-kong based Animoca Brands. Other investors who took part in the funding drive were Multicoin Capital, Alameda Research, DeFiance, Valor Capital Group, Figment, Spartan Capital, Tribe Capital, Play Ventures, HashKey, Mechanism Capital, DeFi Alliance, Terra, among others.

Apart from that, Burnt Finance will now launch its native NFT marketplace, intending to be a ‘hub for NFTs by integrating DeFi functionality, such as NFT lending, liquidity mining with staking incentives, fractionalization, and GameFi’. In accordance with the P.R, this will enable permissionless access to NFTs and claims to have low fees and fast speeds, with 160k users on its waitlist. It also claims to have processed over $100 million of trading volume in 7 days on its Spark testnet.

According to data provided by DappRadar, in 2021, the global market for non-fungible tokens has skyrocketed to around $22 billion. Legacy auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s have also entered into the NFT domain. In December 2021 alone, NFT sales charted $4 billion. Just like its counterparts, Burnt Finance is also aiming to reap the benefits. 

Competitors include OpenSea, SuperRare, Rarible, and NiftyGateway. Even though Burnt is an early entrant, it’s hoping to pose a challenge to the larger players by using popular blockchain like Solana and going for the DeFi space. One of the best-performing cryptocurrencies in 2021, SOL’s DeFi projects crossed US$3 billion in September 2021.

Solana’s DeFi projects brief overview

In just two years, the layer-1 protocol has attracted a wealth of developer talent and has evolved to support over 350 projects, many of which are focused on decentralized finance [DeFi], NFTs, and Web3. Last week, the team behind one of Solana’s biggest projects is in the middle of a $100 million fundraising deal to expand operations. As a matter of fact, SOL’s DeFi major Serum’s Incentive ecosystem has committed $70 million.

Two weeks prior, another DeFi protocol built on the layer-1 blockchain is Exotic Markets that raised $5 million in a private token sale co-led by Multicoin and Ascensive Assets. The funding arrives as Solana maintained its position among the top five in the DeFi TVL charts,

Where is Solana [SOL] price heading?

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As the new year dawned, major altcoin Solana [SOL] seemingly headed for a slow start as it sank by more than 17% in just 3 days only to recover by 6% at $179 along the same time period. Amidst ambitious predictions by the community, the overall market traded in the green on the first day of 2022 fuelling hope for an exciting beginning after a dull December.

At the time of writing, SOL’s price was changing hands at $176 with a 24-hour trading volume of $1.07 billion. The coin surge by 1.81% in the last 24 hours. However, Solana posted a decline of 11.21% in the weekly index. The 5th ranked asset’s market cap stood at $54 billion as per data on Coinmarketcap. With respect to the price technicals, the overall outlook does not look too grim.

Solana [SOL] price technicals analysis

SOLUSDT 2022 01 02 18 41 12
Where is Solana [SOL] price heading? 2

From the four-hour chart above, in the trading aspect, the Relative Strength Index [RSI] indicator hovering below the 50-median is indicating the dominance of the sellers and the weakening position of the buyers in the coin market. However, the Chaikin Money Flow, [CMF] cruising above the equilibrium layer is indicating an increase in the capital inflow. Riding along a similar trajectory, the green price bars of the Awesome Oscillator [AO] too reiterated the bullish narrative in the near term for the asset’s price action.

Solana which is regarded for its speed and security has another reason to cheer. One of its fastest-growing wallets built for decentralized finance [DeFi] and nonfungible tokens [NFT] known as Phantom has seen incredible growth in 2021 with 1.8 million monthly active users in a span of 9 months. Apart from that in 2021, its users have staked over $16 billion worth of SOL, swapped over $1.3bliion of tokens, and made over 55 million transactions on their favorite dApps or centralized applications.

Are Avalanche [AVAX] and Solana [SOL] overhyped?

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The two most popular Ethereum [ETH] rivals- Avalanche [AVAX] and Solana [SOL] have seen tremendous growth in 2021 and received widespread attention with many touting them as ETH killers. However, a leading Blockchain engineer David Kajpust considers the hype surrounding the two assets as exaggerated. In a series of tweets, Kajpust detailed the reasons why the narratives around the two blockchains are strong in comparison to the Cosmos [ATOM] ecosystem and Polygon [MATIC] which according to him ‘also handles significantly higher transaction’.

First, the developer insists on looking from the perspective of Venture Capitalists [VCs] whose main goal is to ‘make as much money as possible as they want to buy low and buy A LOT‘ thus enabling them to purchase a large amount at a cheaper rate. Kajpust observed that the reason behind Solana and Avalanche witnessing a massive accumulation in 2021 is because of these large-scale investors selling at a higher rate to retail investors.

In terms of the community becoming more centralized, Kajpust noted that a small group of people was meticulously working behind the scenes to coordinate and interact with founding teams, OTC desks, and other rich individuals in collecting large percentages of SOL and AVAX. This according to him resulted in a creation of a semi-centralized distribution along with coordinated marketing strategies like announcing massive user incentives that lead to the shilling of the tokens.

Avalanche and Solana’s Bullish narration eclipsed others?

The developer in his post further analyzed the probable plan of action undertaken by the VCs with regards to the layer-1 blockchains such as Avalanche and Solana, this year. Reading along with the same, he stated,

“In retrospect, the A++ strategy for VCs in 2021 was: Find a fast L1 that you can buy 3-7% of all tokens, through founders or OTC. – Shill it. Endlessly. With conviction. Get it into the top 10 so that the liquidity is high enough to absorb billions in profit.”

In a nutshell, Kajpust observed that the Cosmos ecosystem is way too decentralized to have coordinated shilling, marketing, and have under-exaggerated narratives. On the other hand, that the current token distribution of Avalanche and Solana encourages shilling and has inflated bullish narratives.

Mrs.Trump ventures into the NFT space; Details remain hazy

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The former US first lady, Melania Trump, picks Solana blockchain to purchase her new Non Fungible Tokens(NFT). The NFT is to be paid through MoonPay, a new Start-up crypto payment infrastructure.

Mrs. Trump, took to Twitter to announce that her first NFT, a painting called, ‘Melania’s Vision’ by the artist Marc-Antoine Coulon, and an audio recording with a message of hope from the former first lady, could be purchased at 1SOL using MoonPay. This is available on her website starting from the 16 December to the 31 December 2021.

“Excited for this new venture, which combines my passion for art and commitment to helping our Nation’s children fulfill their own unique American Dream. #MelaniaNFThttp://MelaniaTrump.com“

Solana Labs and MoonPay dismiss rumors of a partnership with Trump’s NFT project

While Melania launched her NFT project, Solana Labs and MoonPay had to deal with rumors of partnering with Melania’s NFT project. Solana labs immediately stated,

“I wanted to inform you, to avoid any confusion, that her choice to use the Solana blockchain was completely organic, and this project is not part of any Solana-led initiative”

MoonPay tweeted about the same and stated that the story by Bloomberg, titled ‘MoonPay as a partner to a new NFT effort by Former First Lady Melania Trump,’ is factually incorrect and that they had no role to play in it. MoonPay is a company that helps people exchange cryptocurrencies and fiat, or government-issued currencies using major payment methods. It is used in more than 160 countries and more than 250 wallets, websites, and applications to make payments and defeat fraud.

Solana is a high-powered blockchain with an extravagant performance that supports the builders of crypto assets to create crypto applications. This altcoin has been gaining a lot of popularity. however, Ethereum is the most popularly used blockchain for NFTs.

At the time of writing, Solana was priced at $181.46 and experienced a bullish market at 2.58% in the last 24 hours. Ethereum on the other hand was priced at $3957.97 and witnessed a daily drop of 0.77%.

Bulls try to avenge Solana [SOL] back over $200

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After a long and hard stay in the bearish arena, all the crypto assets were seen making their way over to the bullish colosseum. Solana [SOL], Terra [LUNA], and Avalanche [AVAX] seemed to be the bulls’ favorites. Amassing the most gains, the aforementioned assets were the stars of today’s market.

While Bitcoin [BTC] was trying to navigate its way beyond $50K, the altcoins were attempting to make up for the loss they experienced over the last couple of days.

Solana [SOL] made headlines for various reasons this year. The algorithm that the network uses and the price surge of SOL put the altcoin right under the crypto spotlight. Not only did the coin witness a massive swell in its price, but the market cap also followed suit.

The previous few days caused immense bloodshed in the Solana market sending the altcoin to a low of $150. However, the bulls in its market managed to push the asset all the way above $180. At the time of writing, SOL was trading for $183.77 with a 10.59% rise in the last 24-hours.

Despite its recent setback in terms of price, SOL managed to stay in the top five. During press time, SOL’s market cap was at $56.56 billion.

Solana [SOL] one-hour price chart on Binance

Solana
Bulls try to avenge Solana [SOL] back over $200 4

The short-term price chart of SOL exhibited a strong bullish notion. The Chaikin Money Flow [CMF] indicator used in the chart moved beyond the 0.30 median further signifying the presence of the bull. Earlier today, the MACD indicator underwent a reversal in trend. The bulls didn’t let the bears relax in the SOL market for too long as the MACD line took over the signal line forming a bullish crossover.

Furthermore, buyers were seen assembling in the Solana market. The Relative Strength Index [RSI] indicator affirmed a buyer’s market. The RSI marker rose all the way up to the overbought zone.

Solana welcomes brand new NFT marketplace, Fractal

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Solana [SOL] network has been garnering a lot of attention despite its current price rut. In a positive development, the blockchain became the preferred choice for a brand new nonfungible token [NFT] platform called Fractal, co-founded by Twitch pioneer Justin Kan. Gone are the days where OpenSea had a complete monopoly over the digital collectibles space, competing startups like Fractal are making a beeline for the ‘low-fee high-bandwidth structure’ of the layer 1 network that provides an ideal ground to build NFT projects.

According to the blog post, the new forum is being built based on opportunities arising in the gaming and so-called play-to-earn titles, that allow users to buy avatars and other digital goods. Citing the example of Fortnite who made billions by selling its in-game assets, the platform has been looking to establish support for blockchain gaming entities and create a space for the free exchange of digital goods.

To achieve this, Kan stated his team would be partnering with several prominent gaming firms that are prepping to launch NFTs and would be building tools to facilitate these gaming studios in acquiring customers at scale. Kan and the rest of the team are hoping for the launch of the Fractal platform in the next weeks.

Kan who co-founded Twitch back in 2007 has been currently focusing on his entrepreneurship-focused YouTube channel and podcast as well as the incubator fund called Goat Capital, of which Fractal is the product. Revealing more on his start-up, Kan noted,

“Players will be able to discover, buy and sell gaming NFTs on Fractal, through both a primary market [initial drops by gaming companies] and a secondary market [p2p trading]. Eventually, we see ourselves creating infrastructure for emergent use cases of NFTs as well, such as the lending/scholarship model in some play-to-earn games.”

Recent network struggle in Solana – trouble in the paradise?

Despite being at the forefront of several high-profile partnerships, congestion issues are becoming an irritant for Solana. The Layer 1 blockchain suffered network congestion on 13 December, this year following the launch of the highly anticipated NFT project called SolChicks token on Raydium. Shortly after that, Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko posted a series of tweets in response to a post inquiring about the issues, and stated, “fixes are baking, should be ready soon.” 

Solana [SOL] to debut in Opera’s in-built wallet by early 2022

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Solana [SOL] is soon set to integrate with multi-platform web browser Opera in the 1st quarter of 2022. As stated in their official press release, the partnership will facilitate Opera’s Android users to be able to gain accessibility to Solana’s wide range of decentralized applications [DApps] as well as benefit from its popular features such as low gas fees and faster transactions prevalent in the ecosystem.

As a matter of fact, Opera had launched its first Web 3-ready browser and a built-in crypto wallet back in 2018. In the same period of time, the Norwegian browser had announced a joint collaboration with the prominent strategic blockchain advisory and financial services entity, Ledger Capital to explore the potential of digital ledger technology. 

Why Solana?

With growing mainstream interest in web3 technology and decentralized finance [DeFi], the leading browser is moving on to the next stage of integrating faster blockchains with lower transaction costs amid a growing pool of developers and users. As per the blog post, the main reason behind choosing the Solana blockchain is its ability to bring fast, low-fee transactions that will help onboard more individuals to web3 and DeFi. The layer one blockchain will provide direct access to Opera’s hundreds of millions of users and will initially provide support to the browser’s Android version.

In addition to that, Solana would also ‘allow for lightning–fast finality and very low transaction fees of only $0.00025‘. In fact, the platform currently boasts a burgeoning ecosystem of dApps such as Serum, Raydium, Metaplex, Orca, Audius, gaming among other things. Speaking on the collaboration, Susie Batt, Crypto Ecosystem Lead at Opera said that the partnership is aimed at fulfilling the shared ambitious goal of ‘onboarding one billion people into the crypto ecosystem.

Echoing similar sentiment, Austin Federa who heads the communications division at Solana labs noted,

The path to 1 billion users can’t be built by just two or three platforms. This integration will give tens of millions of new users even more choices of how to connect to Solana, and work to keep the dream of the open web alive and well. The mobile web3 revolution has barely just begun, and Opera is helping lead the way. 

Solana [SOL] succumbs to the crypto carnage by sinking below $200

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Smeared in red, the crypto market witnessed nothing by loss. Solana [SOL], XRP, Polkadot [DOT], and other altcoins had taken a hit. Bitcoin [BTC] wasn’t faring well either as it slipped way below $50K. At the time of writing, BTC was trading for $48K and the asset had a major hindrance to overcome before hitting $1 trillion again.

The meme coins also followed the ongoing sentiment in the market and drowned in the red sea. All the gains, these assets had amassed over the last couple of weeks were going down the drain.

Solana [SOL], has been one of the most promising altcoins this year. From surging all the way over $200 and to climbing the crypto ladder, SOL garnered several fans. However, the asset was enduring a slump similar to the entire crypto market.

During press time, SOL was trading at $177.82 with a 5.28% drop over the last 24-hours. The altcoin had found itself way over $200, but the bears managed to push it back down. Having witnessed a loss of up to 24% throughout the week, another push from the bears could drive Solana down to $150.

Despite, the bearish invasion, Solana managed to stay afloat in terms of ranking and market cap. The altcoin lounged as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $54 billion.

Solana [SOL] one-hour price chart on Coinbase

SOLUSD 2021 12 10 16 38 02
Solana [SOL] succumbs to the crypto carnage by sinking below $200 6

A possible change in trend could be underway for the altcoin. The short-term price chart of SOL noted a possible increase in volatility. The bands in the Bollinger Bands indicator were slightly apart hinting at the possibility of price fluctuations. The Awesome Oscillator indicator suggests that this could be beneficial for the altcoin as the market was traversing into the bullish arena. The green closing bars laid out by the indicator affirmed this occurrence.

The Relative Strength Index [RSI] indicator noted that Solana was being overtly sold.

Solana [SOL] gains over 9% Intraday, heading for another Rally?

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After recovering from a steep correction, Solana [SOL] managed to hold the ground, registering a 9.06% surge in the last 24 hours and reaching $220 by mid-day on the 1st of November 2021. Interestingly, the price surge took place in the backdrop of the major asset management firm, Grayscale Investment’s announcement of adding SOL to its investment portfolio, yesterday on its official Twitter handle.

At the time of writing, SOL’s price was trading at $217.50 with a 24-hour trading volume of $3.14 billion. The asset rose by 8.10% in the last 24 hours. It is currently ranked at #5, with a market cap of $66 billion as per data on Coinmarketcap.

What do Solana [SOL] price technicals indicate?

SOLUSD 2021 12 01 14 22 21
Solana [SOL] gains over 9% Intraday, heading for another Rally? 9

From the four-hour chart above, the Relative Strength Index [RSI] indicator rising above the 50-median is leaning towards bullish tendencies as buyers resort to dominating the market. With regards to the Chaikin Money Flow, [CMF] cruising above the equilibrium layer is suggesting an increase in the capital inflow. Similarly, the green price bars of the Awesome Oscillator [AO] too reiterated the bullish narrative.

SOLUSD 2021 12 01 14 29 12
Solana [SOL] gains over 9% Intraday, heading for another Rally? 10

With respect to the above daily chart, the price has been on an uptrend, as evident from candles hovering above the 50,100 and the 200-day moving average [DMA] that are acting as support from the further downtrend.

The recent decision by Grayscale Investments to add Solana into its product line would undoubtedly attract visibility from high-net-worth and institutional investors. The reason behind that is Solana’s tremendous growth as a blockchain project in 2021. The layer-one protocol emerged as a top contender against a behemoth like Ethereum, after providing users with one of the lowest cost and fastest transaction speed public ledgers.

Despite its price uptrend, market speculators however warn that the native token might face some serious hurdles due to issues such as ‘excessive valuations on longer-timeframe charts and the chances of network outages’

Single Solana Network transaction consumes lesser energy than 2 Google searches

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The Solana Foundation published a report which reveals that a single transaction on the Solana network consumes less energy than two Google searches and 24 times less energy than charging a smartphone.

The report published on November 25 further explains that one transaction on Solana Network consumes 0.00051 kWh (1,836 Joules) of energy. On the other hand, Google reports that a single Google search takes 0.0003 kWh (1,080 Joules) of energy.

However, the report further claims that the whole Solana Network consumes almost the same amount of energy as 986 average American households, which is estimated to be 3,186,000 kWh per year.

Solana Network uses way less energy than Bitcoin and Ethereum

With 1,196 validator nodes processing an approximated 20 million transactions per year, the Solana network is less decentralized than top currencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum. According to the report, the Foundation will lower the network’s energy consumption even more by adopting a program to become carbon-neutral and offset the ecosystem’s environmental footprint by the end of 2021. There was no further data on whether the network intends to buy carbon offsets or cut its emissions.

The Solana Foundation joined hands with Robert Murphy in May 2021 to draft the report to frame the Solana network’s impact on the environment. Murphy describes himself as a “Builder and investor focused on climate and energy technologies” and has founded Othersphere. It has formerly also worked as an Energy Specialist at the World Bank.

The network, which works on the Proof of Stake mechanism, uses way less energy than those relying on the Proof of Work mechanism like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Notably, a single Bitcoin transaction consumes approximately 4,222,800,000 joules.

Furthermore, Ethereum uses around 644,004,000 joules per transaction based on the amount of energy required to run the network and the average number of transactions. As a network technically does not consume a specific amount of energy for a single transaction. It can be the same whether it processes one or a million transactions. Therefore, these are rough comparisons.