Solana’s struggle continues. The fallout of FTX, which included much speculation about Alameda Research’s level of exposure – believed to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars – also seemed to bleed into the blockchain NFT scene.
Now, two major projects in the Solana ecosystem have announced their departure to the new chain – expected to be effective early next year.
For Solana, When It Rains, It Comes Down
Solana is probably the most highly speculated token on FTX’s downfall. The token is creeping out of the top 25 in the top token market cap, which would have been a shocking revelation just a year ago – as SOL has long been a top 10 token.
Token price aside, Solana sentiment in the NFT community has waned; for many months, DeGods and y00ts creator Frank has long been tempted to move to a new chain. Just last month, NFT market Magic Eden – which started in Solana only – announced its integration with Polygon.
While Solana’s momentum has waned in recent months, it is still the ‘#2 player’ behind Ethereum in the NFT space. However, according to new announcement on Christmas Day, the two largest NFT projects on the chain, DeGods and y00ts, headed to the new blockchains.
Solana's market cap dominance (CRYPTOCAP:SOL.D) has taken a major hit in recent months. The NFT sector has been no exception. | Source: CRYPTOCAP:SOL.D on TradingView.com
New Year, New Look Blockchain
Amid the madness, Polygon secured another NFT win here. The chain will be reaching out to y00ts with open arms, adding the community’s first collection of NFTs to an ever-growing list of partners and a host of ‘enterprises’, including Reddit, Starbucks, and yes – even Donald Trump’s latest collection of NFTs. After several institutional wins, Polygon now secures a more community-focused NFT collection win – and that’s a big deal.
Meanwhile, DeGods will move to Ethereum, looking to compete with the blue chip ‘big dog’ that offers the most volume in the NFT space. Frank, creator of DeGods and subsequent y00ts, dropped a few tweets on the matter, but none more optimistic than this:
Nike, Adidas, Starbucks, Disney, Shopify, NFL, TicketMaster, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, Prada, Dolce & Gabana, FlipKart, Coca-Cola, Adobe, Bentley, Stripe, Draft Kings, 100 Thieves, and just a few.
I think that @y00tsNFT the brand is only getting stronger.
But let’s take a look 🤷♂️
– Frank III (@frankdegods) December 26, 2022
Regardless of how shaken it is for Frank’s respective projects in his new venture, there is no doubt that this is a loss for the Solana NFT community. According to NFT data collection from CryptoSlam, DeGods and y00ts have been in the top 20 volumes in every time metric, excluding all time periods (24 hours, 7 days, 30 days). They are the only Solana-based project to do so.
DeGods and y00ts are expected to migrate to the new chain in the first quarter of 2023.
