The Story of Solana
Solana started as a crazy idea from Anatoly Yakovenko, an ex-Qualcomm engineer who realized one thing:
blockchains are slow because everyone waits for everyone.
So in 2017, he wrote a whitepaper introducing Proof of History (PoH) — a way to keep time inside the blockchain so nodes don’t waste time syncing clocks.
That single idea became Solana’s superpower: speed.
The Rise👇
2020 → Solana mainnet beta launches.
It delivers what no other chain could:
50k+ TPS, dirt-cheap fees, one global state.
Developers rush in.
NFTs (Degenerate Ape Academy), DeFi (Serum), and memecoins blow up.
VCs dump money.
SOL pumps from cents to over $200.
Solana becomes the “Ethereum killer.”
People call it the Apple of crypto — fast, clean, controlled.
The Crash
Then the storm hits.
Outages → trolls call it “Solana Offline Network.”
FTX collapses → Solana gets nuked because of heavy SBF association.
SOL dies from $260 to $8.
Everyone says it’s finished.
The Comeback
But Solana didn’t die.
It rebuilt.
It optimized.
It outperformed.
It became the king of speed again.
2023–2025:
Firedancer upgrade (insane performance).
Massive memecoin season (BOME, WIF, BONK).
USDC volume explodes on Solana.
Developers return in thousands.
Solana becomes the most active chain in crypto.
SOL roars back as one of the strongest ecosystems — not because of hype, but because it actually works.
The Legacy (Now)
Solana is:
the fastest major blockchain
the cheapest to use
the most memecoin-active ecosystem
the chain with the strongest comeback in crypto history
It went from “dead project” to “dominant chain” without permission from anyone.