18 March 2025
A well-known cryptocurrency marks its anniversary by celebrating the milestones it has achieved over the years such as its incredible growth that made it one of the top digital assets in the space. In the last five years, Solana has attained nearly $1 trillion in DEX trading and processed more than 400 billion transactions.
Five Successful Years
Since Solana was created on March 16, 2020, the crypto has grown to become one of the top 10 digital assets today.
In an X post, Solana shared what it has accomplished over the course of its half-a-decade existence, citing that it has facilitated over 408 billion SOL transactions, more than 1,300 validators, and at least $987 billion in volume.
Happy 5th birthday Solana fam!
408+ billion transactions.
1,300+ validators.
$987+ billion volume.Thank you to all the relentless founders, devs, and nCMOs around the globe who have made Solana what it is today — 5 years in, we’re just getting started
pic.twitter.com/p89PynhjpJ
— Solana (@solana) March 16, 2025
According to CoinGecko, Solana holds the 6th place in cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization. Meanwhile, SOL occupies the 9th spot in the Coinbase crypto, which is based on relative market cap.
“Thank you to all the relentless founders, devs, and nCMOs around the globe who have made Solana what it is today — 5 years in, we’re just getting started,” SOL said in a post.
Solana Growth By The Numbers
Analysts said that Solana, a crypto born together with the pandemic, owes its growth to its system which speeds up its transaction processing, allowing the digital asset to increase at a low cost.
Data showed that since its mainnet went live in March 2020, the crypto has generated over 254 million blocks, adding that Solana has become a major force in the decentralized finance space. According to DeFiLlama, Solana has more than $7 billion in total value locked in its protocols.
On the other hand, SOL’s stablecoin is also doing well after posting $11 billion. Although this figure is a bit lower than the $12.6 billion recorded in February 2025.
In terms of market capitalization, Solana has about over $65 billion, which is a big drop from its peak of $127.5 billion.
As of writing, SOL is being traded at $127 per coin, which is 1.2% down in the last 24 hours.
Bouncing Back
Market observers said Solana was greatly affected by the bear market in 2022 and the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX, wherein investors saw its mark cap plummet by 96% to only $3 billion.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX bought an estimated 58 million SOL tokens worth $7.4 billion at today’s value. However, in November 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy, leading to a decrease in SOL’s price and hitting $8.30 per coin in December 2022.
It might face many challenges in 2022 but SOL showed its resiliency and made an impressive comeback in 2023, growing its market cap from $3 billion to more than $140 billion, as of January 19, 2025.
Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView