At their peak last November, decentralized finance (DeFi) applications stored more than $10 billion on the Solana network, its popularity being led by high-flying proponents including Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX crypto exchange, Multicoin Capital, Sino Global Capital and other venture funds.
A year later, the total value locked (TVL) has dropped to just over $300 million with FTX filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and facing prosecution, Multicoin and Sino Global reporting multimillion-dollar losses and the Solana Foundation itself losing "tens of millions."
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Bankman-Fried’s downfall translated to generally falling sentiment for Solana, given his prominent endorsement of the network. He once infamously told a crypto trader on Twitter: “I'll buy as much SOL has you have, right now, at $3...Then go f**k off," referring to the blockchain's native token.
While the $10 billion TVL on Solana has declined over the past year, with the price of SOL contributing to that drop, the past two weeks have been more drastic. More than $700 million has exited Solana-based applications, a 70% drop from the $1 billion in TVL on Nov. 2, when CoinDesk first reported on the collusion between treasury accounts at FTX and its sister company, Alameda Research.