Launched just over 5.5 years ago, Solana (SOL) has now risen to become the sixth largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market capitalization of over 96 billion USD (as of July 30). This is an impressive achievement in the context of a highly competitive and volatile cryptocurrency market.

Difference Point: From Proof-of-Stake to Proof-of-History

One of the factors that draw investors' attention to Solana is the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) operational mechanism. Unlike Proof-of-Work (PoW) – which consumes enormous energy like Bitcoin – PoS does not require mining with powerful hardware. Instead, users stake their tokens in the network, and the system randomly selects transaction validation nodes to create new blocks.

  • The more SOL you stake, the higher your chances of being selected as a validator.

  • Successful validators will receive rewards in SOL.

Not only stopping at PoS, Solana has also innovated with Proof-of-History (PoH) – a mechanism that records the sequential timestamps of transactions. Thanks to PoH, the system can confirm transactions extremely quickly while ensuring data security and integrity.

Impressive Transaction Processing Speed

Currently, the Solana network can process thousands of transactions per second (TPS) and theoretically, this number can reach 65,000 TPS or more.

This speed surpasses many other blockchains and opens up the potential to revolutionize the global payment system – which is in need of faster, cheaper, and more transparent solutions.

Incredible Investment Performance

Despite the volatile cryptocurrency market, Solana remains one of the outstanding success stories:

  • Five years ago, SOL was priced at around 1.73 USD.

  • Currently (end of July 2025), the price of SOL is over 179 USD.

  • Growth Rate: over 10,264%.

This means that: if you invested 1,000 USD in SOL five years ago, today you would have over 103,000 USD – a return rarely seen in an investment lifetime.

Conclusion

Solana is not just an altcoin. With a combination of advanced technology (PoS + PoH), impressive processing speed, and potential application in global payments, SOL has proven to be a blockchain platform worth watching.

However, like any other cryptocurrency investment, risks always exist. Investors should carefully consider, allocate capital wisely, and always stay updated with technology trends to take advantage of the opportunities that Solana offers.