Solana (SOL) Marks Its 5th Anniversary Today with Over 400 Billion Transactions Processed

Though it was founded in 2017 by Anatomy Yakovenko alongwith Raj Gokal under the brand name of Solana Labs, its Mainnet was launched in 2020, pioneering the Proof-of-History (PoH) concept.

Solana, the prominent Layer-1 blockchain, is marking its 5th anniversary today since the first Solana block was built on March 16, 2020.

Though it was founded in 2017 by Anatomy Yakovenko alongwith Raj Gokal under the brand name of Solana Labs, its Mainnet was launched in 2020, pioneering the Proof-of-History (PoH) concept.

Five years ago, Anatoly Yakovenko, a former Qualcomm engineer, entered the Blockchain space and presented Solana with an ambitious goal: to build a high-speed, low-cost, and scalable network that could rival traditional financial systems. And cut to today’s March 2025, it boasts of enabling 408 billion transactions with nearly $987B DEX Volume, supported by 1300+ validators.

In its 5-year journey of becoming the industry’s leading Layer-1 Blockchain, it has faced several breakdowns and breakthroughs.

Join BrandTalk as we revisit the defining moments that have left a lasting mark on Solana’s incredible 5-year journey.

1. Solana’s $20M Funding from Multicoin Capital

Its journey particularly received a green light when in July 2019, Solana received $20 Million in funding, led by Multicoin Capital.

Multicoin Capital was one of the earliest and most influential investors in Solana. The venture capital firm, known for backing high-growth blockchain projects, recognized Solana’s potential early and played a key role in its rise.

“When you find someone who has already written code that will run on billions of phones and optimize transaction speed—this (investment) is obvious,” Multicoin Capital general partner Vinny Lingham had said during that time of the investment.

However, later Multicoin Capital was heavily exposed to FTX and Alameda Research, both of which were deeply intertwined with Solana. When FTX collapsed in November 2022, SOL’s price plunged, and Multicoin too suffered major losses. Despite this, they remained committed to Solana, citing its strong developer ecosystem and technology.

Notably, Multicoin Capital still views Solana as a key investment, emphasizing its high throughput, low fees, and growing adoption in DeFi, NFTs, and payments. They continue to hold a substantial amount of SOL and have re-affirmed their long-term belief in the network.

2. Network Instability with recurrent outages

Unlike Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling solutions, Solana processes all transactions on a single layer, making it vulnerable to spikes in demand — a feature that proved both boon and bane for Solana.

With High TPS & Bot Activity, its cheap fees attracted bots that flood the network with spam transactions, overwhelming validators — creating its history of network outages.

Since its launch, the blockchain suffered multiple downtimes, including a 17-hour outage in September 2021 due to excessive transaction load. While the team worked to improve network resilience, critics questioned its reliability as a decentralized system.

In May, 2022 again, it suffered 7-Hour Outage due to NFT minting bots flooding the network with over 4 million transactions per second. As a result, Solana halted and required a manual restart. It suffered another such outrage in October with its most recent being on February 25, 2023 – 20-Hour Degradation.

In order to solve it, in August 2022, Solana collaborated with Jump Crypto to develop Firedancer, a new validator client aimed at enhancing network efficiency and reducing downtime.

3. Hailed as a potential “Ethereum killer”

Solana earned the title of “Ethereum killer” due to its high throughput, low transaction costs, and developer-friendly ecosystem. It was seen as a strong competitor to Ethereum, addressing its scalability and congestion issues.

Further, Solana’s high-speed blockchain came as a game-changer for DeFi, NFTs, and gaming, making transactions nearly instantaneous compared to Ethereum’s slower confirmations.its scalability and congestion issues.

3. FTX Collapse Came as a Major Setback

Its narrative of being a “Ethereum Killer” received significant setback during Sam Bankman Fried-led FTX Collapse of November 2022, coming as the biggest challenge for Solana when FTX and Alameda Research collapsed.

As a major investor in Solana, Alameda held significant SOL tokens, and its bankruptcy sent shockwaves through the ecosystem.

Solana’s total value locked (TVL) in DeFi dropped from over $10 billion to under $500 million, and its price plummeted by more than 90% from its all-time high of $260.

Many assumed that Solana would struggle to recover, but the community and developers remained steadfast.

4. (SOL) reaching ATH price of $259.96 with NFT and DeFi Boom