Is Solana Dead

Crypto Robot

Is Solana dead, or is this blockchain quietly preparing for its next massive run? In this video, we break down the debate around Solana’s future, looking at its recent outages, developer ecosystem, and adoption compared to Ethereum.  Many critics say Solana is a “dead chain,” but investors point to strong NFT activity, DeFi growth, and institutional partnerships that suggest otherwise. We’ll cover both sides: the risks of investing in Solana now, and the potential rewards if the Solana blockchain continues to scale. If you’ve been asking, is Solana dead?, this video will give you the insights you need before making any moves.  👉 Subscribe for daily alpha on crypto market trends, bold Bitcoin predictions, and altcoin gems that could 10x your portfolio! – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpjN8bNE-CoAgpfMatghM9g  📧 Email: cryptorobothelp@gmail.com  💰 Affiliate Links  Sofi Checking & Savings – Get $25 free ➝ https://www.sofi.com/invite/money?gcp=16a53d0f-b4b2-441d-9100-cfb506305260&isAliasGcp=false  Sofi Investing – Free $25 in stock ➝ https://www.sofi.com/invite/invest?gcp=ab31edd8-701e-4109-9225-51b41e35d246&isAliasGcp=false  Coinbase Exchange – Earn up to $300 BTC ➝ https://coinbase.com/join/YPUQLCY?src=referral-link  Tracking Tools – CoinGecko | CoinMarketCap  Trading Tools – Get $15 off TradingView ➝ https://www.tradingview.com/pricing/?share_your_love=cryptonextsteps  #Solana #Crypto #SOL #Altcoins #CryptoNews #DeFi #NFTs #Blockchain #Web3 #Ethereum #CryptoInvesting #CryptoTrading #Bitcoin #CryptoMarket #SolanaNews

Transcript

00:00welcome back to the deep dive we're the place you come to get clear signal from well often

00:10very noisy crypto research we filter it down give you the actionable insights and today we are diving

00:16headfirst into one of the most i'd say debated and volatile narratives out there solana absolutely

00:23it feels like every other week there's a headline right you see it constantly is solana dead exactly

00:28that's the core question we really want to unpack why does that question keep coming up even now so

00:33our mission today is to use uh quite a diverse set of sources we've got stuff from cointelegraph

00:39deep dives from the block research in massari glass node data even a visa blog post right a real mix

00:45to give you a fast but comprehensive look at both sides the bear case why people doubt it and the

00:50bull case why others see this massive potential we're focusing purely on the tech and the financials

00:55driving this whole drama okay so they'll unpack this uh this high stakes ecosystem battle but

01:01before we really get into the weeds of whether solana's you know staging this epic comeback or

01:05if it's truly on shaky ground there was something interesting in the sources wasn't there yeah actually

01:10kind of a meta point that popped up the sources themselves mentioned how important content engagement

01:15is for you know the whole crypto research space it's about how analysis like this gets supported right

01:21they were talking about how channels researchers putting in the hours to synthesize all this complex

01:27data well your participation actually matters it really does it's more than just numbers things

01:32like subscribing hitting that notification bell leaving a comment liking the content it acts as a

01:38feedback loop and in this world of algorithms where let's face it quality analysis is fighting

01:43against a lot of noise and just hot takes that engagement it gives it a boost doesn't it precisely

01:49it helps make sure these kinds of source driven deep dives actually reach people it supports the

01:54creation of more quality crypto insights more that uh alpha as they call it so basically by engaging

02:02you're helping fuel the engine that delivers this kind of detailed analysis in this very specific

02:07very technical field well put it's kind of the support structure for high signal content okay good glad we

02:13covered that yeah now let's dive into the core drama we have to start with the dark days right where did

02:19all this is solana dead talk even come from to really get why the comeback is so significant

02:26you first have to understand what almost took solana down and it wasn't just one thing was it the

02:31sources are pretty clear the big one was network reliability those crises in 2021 2022 oh yeah that was

02:37solana's uh achilles heel plain and simple and it wasn't just minor hiccups we're talking multiple critical

02:43network wide outages full stops like the whole thing just went offline for hours at a time the

02:49sources make it clear these weren't just you know periods of high fees or slow transactions these were

02:53liveness failures the network just stopped processing blocks entirely okay so if your whole brand is built

02:59on being this super fast high performance chain what does a complete shutdown like that do to your core

03:07promise and technically what was causing these failures well it completely guts the value proposition

03:12isn't it that promise of what 65 000 transactions per second that means absolutely nothing if the

03:17network's down for eight hours straight right technically the analysis often pointed towards the consensus

03:22mechanism specifically how proof of history their special sauce interacted with the proof of stake

03:28validators under stress often it was a bottleneck in transaction processing a bottleneck triggered by

03:34usually a sudden massive flood of transactions think bots swarming an initial dx offering or a really hyped

03:41up nft mint so basically spam people trying to game the system would just overwhelm it pretty much the sources

03:47talk about the leader validator getting choked unable to process the queue this could lead the network into

03:52something called fork fatigue fork fatigue yeah essentially the validators couldn't agree on the valid chain on

03:58the current state of the network and everything would just grind to a halt the key thing is the

04:03architecture was so optimized for speed it turned out to be fragile under these unexpected massive load

04:08spikes at least initially and fixing it wasn't easy fixing it required the developers to coordinate a

04:14manual restart a hard reboot of the entire network which you know they had to do to get things running

04:20again but it definitely added fuel to that other big criticism the centralization argument we'll get to

04:26that but first just as they're grappling with these core technical problems 2022 brings a

04:32financial hurricane maybe even worse than the outages we're talking ftx and alameda oh man cataclysmic is

04:39probably the right word solana was incredibly close to sam bankmanfried's empire financially

04:44developmentally ftx and alameda weren't just investors they were huge early backers huge proponents

04:51they helped launch tons of projects on solana so when ftx just imploded the connection immediately became

04:57toxic right how bad were the financial exposure and what did that do to market psychology it was

05:02massive the source materials show alameda held enormous amounts of sol the native token and the

05:08bankruptcy meant this massive chunk of sol was just hanging over the market threatening liquidation for

05:15ages the price action was brutal it was a horror show critics had a field day remember sol went from that

05:21250 all-time high then post ftx it crashed way down fell below ten dollars people weren't just

05:29questioning the tech anymore they were literally calling it dead linking it directly to fraud

05:34financial crime systemic risk that psychological damage you mentioned it can't be overstated can it

05:41being tied so closely to one of the biggest scandals in crypto history absolutely it wasn't just a tech

05:46issue or a price dip it became an ethical stain institutional investors especially had to distance

05:52themselves rebuilding trust after that it required more than just technical patches it needed a whole

05:57psychological reset for the market people had to ask you know is this a viable tech platform or am i

06:01buying into something fundamentally tainted exactly that question are we investing in innovation or just

06:07the remnants of a collapsed potentially manipulated market which brings us neatly to that third major

06:12criticism the one that lingers even when things are going well centralization compared to ethereum you

06:19always hear solana is too centralized why is that such a persistent issue what does it mean in practice

06:26right so centralization here mostly refers to who controls the network and how hard it is to

06:31participate in securing it solana has historically had fewer validators the computers confirming transactions

06:38compared to ethereum fewer independent nodes means theoretically more risk of collusion or censorship

06:44that's the core argument yes and the reason for fewer validators often comes down to cost

06:50running a solana validator is significantly more expensive than running say an ethereum node

06:54why is that is it just harder technically it's mainly the hardware requirements and that's a direct

06:59result of solana's speed ambition ethereum is designed to be runnable on decent consumer hardware

07:05you know someone in their garage could potentially stake but solana needs more horsepower a lot more

07:10because it's processing so much data so quickly with proof of history you need serious gear we're

07:17talking high-end sometimes institutional grade gpus massive amounts of ram incredibly fast and expensive

07:24ssds just to keep up with the state growth and transaction throughput so it's not just a technical

07:29barrier it's an economic one exactly that high hardware cost creates a natural barrier to entry

07:35it limits the pool of potential validators to those entities often institutions or dedicated

07:40staking providers with significant capital and a smaller pool means it increases the theoretical risk

07:46could a small group coordinate could they censor and it looked especially bad during those outages

07:51when as we said a coordinated restart by the core developers was needed yeah that feeds the narrative

07:56the sources consistently point to validator count as a key metric to watch is that number growing is the

08:01network becoming genuinely more distributed that's crucial for long-term health okay so the bear case

08:07is pretty stark repeated network failures tied to the core architecture deep financial contamination from

08:13the ftx implosion and this ongoing question mark about centralization because of the hardware demands

08:19that's a tough set of challenges but clearly that wasn't the end of the story solana didn't just fade away it mounted

08:25this incredible comeback built on the very strengths that maybe the critics sometimes overlook let's start

08:32with the absolute core of the bull case that raw speed speed is solana's identity full stop despite all

08:38the troubles the fundamental architecture is still designed for massive throughput it remains an outlier in

08:44terms of potential capacity and let's nail down that number again the sources cite 65 000 plus tps transactions

08:50per second that just sounds astronomical what technically allows that and how does it really compare the key

08:55innovation solana's unique contribution is proof of history or poh you can think of poh as like

09:01a super fast verifiable cryptographic clock built into the blockchain itself yeah it creates this trusted

09:08ordered sequence of events before transactions even get bundled into a block and confirmed by validators

09:14it time stamps everything incredibly precisely and verifiably so instead of validators arguing about the order

09:20of transactions poh provides a common time reference up front exactly it lets the network process

09:26transactions in parallel much more efficiently rather than needing strict sequential ordering and

09:32confirmation like many older blockchains it basically turns a slow sequential task into a highly

09:37parallel one and that's where the 65 000 plus tps comes from that's the theoretical peak enabled by poh

09:44now when you compare that to say ethereum's base layer maybe 15 30 tps on a good day or even other layer

09:49ones solana's potential speed is just in a different league what about layer twos on ethereum they're

09:55fast too right they are much faster than the base layer definitely some l2s can handle thousands of tps

10:02but achieving that consistently under heavy load while keeping fees minimal and ensuring quick finality back

10:08to ethereum that's still a challenge solana aims to do it all on layer one it's selling the formula one car

10:14of blockchains built for things that need near instant speed and huge volume like global finance

10:19or complex online games and then speed capability that's what adels the ecosystem growth we saw right

10:25it opens doors for applications that just wouldn't work on slower chains so where did we see the growth

10:29happening yeah the speed is the foundation we saw growth returning across the main areas defy

10:34decentralized finance nfts non-fungible tokens and increasingly high performance gaming but the really

10:40crucial metric the one showing real commitment came back was the rebound in tvl tvl total value locked in

10:46d5 protocols why is that specific metric so important after the ftx crash because ftx didn't just hurt the

10:54sol price it vaporized billions in liquidity from solana's defy ecosystem and absolutely shattered user

11:01trust seeing tvl climb back up that tells you a few really important things like what it means users are

11:08trusting the smart contracts again liquidity providers are willing to lock up capital signaling long-term

11:13belief and maybe most importantly developers are building again creating innovative protocols because

11:19they see a stable capital base returning the sources highlight growth in things like high-speed

11:24decentralized exchanges lending platforms margin trading stuff that needs solana's low latency that

11:30returning capital is the clearest sign the ecosystem sees a future and this renewed developer and user activity

11:36it wasn't happening in a vacuum there was still strong institutional backing wasn't there even through

11:41the worst of it that's a really key point major vc firms the sources mention multi-coin a16's jump

11:47crypto these weren't fair weather friends they stuck with solana continued investing even when the price

11:53was in the gutter and everyone was predicting doom post ftx what does that signal just stubbornness or

11:59something more it signals deep long-term conviction in the core technology these are smart people with deep

12:06pockets and long investment horizons their continued backing suggests they believe the fundamental tech

12:11advantage of poh and the architecture is real and that the fixes being implemented would address the

12:16reliability issues they were betting on the engineers and the core design but maybe the biggest validation

12:22moving beyond just vc belief into actual enterprise adoption was that visa partnership announced in 2023

12:28absolutely that was a huge moment the sources emphasize visa specifically started testing stablecoin

12:34payments on solana for cross-border transactions this is where the theoretical tps meets the real world

12:40demands of global finance so visa needs to move money internationally fast and cheap they looked around

12:47surely they looked at ethereum l2's other chains why solana what did its architecture offer sources suggest

12:53it was that combination of raw speed and very fast transaction finality visa isn't speculating they're

13:00moving value they need to know a transaction is settled completely confirmed irreversible within seconds not

13:06minutes this is critical for managing liquidity efficiently across borders and solana's proof of

13:12history helps with that finality yes because poh provides that verifiable order before consensus it

13:18allows for incredibly fast and crucially predictable finality times right there on the main layer one chain

13:25whereas say ethereum l2 might be fast for the transaction itself but confirming it fully back on the main

13:31ethereum chain could add time or cost uncertainty that seems to be the differentiator visa valued it moves solana beyond

13:37just impressive lab numbers into something a global financial giant sees as potentially suitable for its core

13:42infrastructure needs despite the past outages that core speed and finality proposition was compelling enough for them to engage

13:49seriously it's a massive institutional nod okay let's shift gears to the comeback itself the price action

13:55the market sentiment how did solana go from being written off to staging one of the most dramatic

14:00rebounds we've seen in crypto between 2023 and 2025 it really is an incredible case study in resilience isn't it

14:07looking at the sol price history cited in the sources the swings are just wild all-time high near 250

14:13dollars then that catastrophic crash below ten dollars after ftx and then this phenomenal recovery pushing back

14:20above two hundred dollars in 2025 that journey darling dead resurrected it explains why the is it dead question

14:27never fully goes away it has looked dead before exactly which leads to the essential question the sources grapple with

14:33is this latest run sustainable is it built on solid fundamentals or is it another wave of hype that could crash again and

14:39speaking of hype the sources point to a major maybe unexpected catalyst for the recovery something traditional

14:45finance often scoffs at meme coins ah yes the meme coin phenomenon of 2024 it was huge for solana the sources

14:55specifically mentioned coins like bonk and yf half driving insane amounts of activity and while yeah it's highly

15:02speculative its impact on the network was very real very tangible it's almost like a massive accidental stress test

15:08stress test how so brought retail back obviously but what did it prove it proved the network could

15:14handle absolutely enormous sustained retail transaction volume while keeping fees negligible

15:20think about trading meme coins you need fast confirmations and dirt cheap fees because you might

15:25be making dozens of trades quickly right you can't pay five dollars in gas for a ten dollar meme coin trade

15:30precisely and during the peak frenzy for coins like bonk the sources noted solana was processing millions maybe

15:37tens of millions of transactions daily yet fees often stayed fractions of a penny sometimes well under a

15:42thousandth of a dollar wow so it demonstrated not just the theoretical speed but the practical cost

15:47efficiency under extreme real world highly speculative load exactly it showed the architecture could support

15:54mass retail activity even under duress without grinding to a halt or becoming prohibitively expensive

15:59that high transaction volume that network activity it wasn't just hype it was real usage translating into real

16:05metrics you simply couldn't have had that kind of meme coin explosion on a slower more expensive chain

16:12okay so meme coins brought the retail frenzy and proved the network could handle it but at the same time

16:18solana was fighting another battle a more complex one on the nft front this is tricky right they actually

16:24lost some ground initially yeah the nft story on solana is complicated it's got twists early on solana had a

16:31really vibrant culturally significant nft scene but then as the sources detail some of the biggest most

16:37influential early projects d gods and izerits are the famous examples they actually decided to leave

16:42solana they migrated where did they go mostly to ethereum or polygon this was happening during that

16:47period of network instability and the cloud of the ftx collapse that must have looked terrible like the

16:52smart money or the cultural leaders were abandoning ship for the perceived safety and network effects of

16:57ethereum that was definitely the narrative at the time a huge blow it seemed but here's the crucial

17:03second part of the story the ecosystem regenerated the sources highlight that after those big names left

17:11new innovative solana native nft projects surged to fill the void so it wasn't dependent on those

17:17initial flagship projects apparently not entirely it showed resilience the developer and artist community

17:22wasn't wiped out and the core value proposition for nfts on solana incredibly cheap minting and trading

17:28high speed for reveals and market activity that remained a powerful draw for new creators and collectors

17:34so when we look at metrics like nft trading volume comparing solana and ethereum it's less about who

17:40has the single biggest collection and more about the ebb and flow the ability to recover and compete

17:45exactly the sources use that nft volume data to show that solana demonstrated organic regeneration

17:52it proved it could rebuild its cultural relevance in that key sector showing that the underlying tech

17:58advantages fast cheap transactions are perhaps the most durable moat even if individual projects

18:04make strategic moves based on market conditions or perceived risks elsewhere all right we've covered

18:09the near-death experiences the core strengths that fueled the comeback and the recent performance let's

18:15zoom out for the final stretch why does solana's fate actually matter in the grand scheme of things

18:20for the average user for developers for institutions it matters because solana represents a very specific

18:27very bold bet on how web3 should scale it's the leading example the primary torchbearer for what we

18:32might call the high performance blockchain narrative which is the idea that the idea that for crypto and

18:38decentralized applications to truly reach mass adoption billions of users interacting seamlessly every day

18:45the base layer the layer one blockchain itself has to be incredibly fast incredibly cheap and capable of

18:51handling enormous transaction volume directly solana is the biggest test case for that philosophy and

18:56putting itself forward like that puts it in direct competition with yeah well everyone but especially

19:01ethereum right it's a clash of scaling philosophies absolutely this is where the strategic stakes for

19:06the future of web3 infrastructure become really clear you basically have two dominant competing visions for

19:13how to scale the decentralized internet and solana's successor failure is a major data point for which

19:19vision might ultimately win out okay so what's the first vision the solana vision we could call it the

19:24monolithic vision solana's approach is to optimize everything execution security data availability all on a

19:30single super fast layer one chain handle all the traffic all the complexity right there and if solana thrives

19:36long term if it thrives it validates this monolithic thesis it proves that purpose-built high-speed

19:43layer ones can compete with and maybe even outperform ethereum in demanding sectors like finance gaming or

19:49social media it strongly suggests a multi-chain future where different l1s carve out niches based on their

19:56performance characteristics it keeps the ethereum killer narrative alive and well okay and the second vision

20:02the ethereum approach that's the modular vision ethereum is betting on a layered approach keep the

20:08base layer 1 focused primarily on security and decentralization acting as a settlement layer but

20:13offload the actual high-speed execution to specialized layer 2 solutions often called roll-ups so speed

20:19happens on layer 2 security on layer 1 exactly in this vision ethereum's vast network effect and

20:25established security are paramount and scalability comes from building on top of it if solana ultimately fails

20:31to overcome its challenges reliability centralization concerns it strengthens the argument for the

20:36modular approach it suggests that new monolithic l1s maybe can't beat the network effects and the

20:41security model of ethereum combined with its evolving l2 ecosystem so it's really a fundamental debate about

20:47architecture integrated speed on l1 versus layered specialization built on a secure base that's the core

20:54tension and it means when you're looking at solana you're not just evaluating a single project you're

20:58evaluating an entire approach to scaling web3 the stakes are incredibly high for developers choosing

21:05where to build for investors allocating capital for everyone involved it forces you as you analyze the

21:11sources to really weigh those competing factors ethereum's proven decentralization and longevity versus

21:17solana's raw speed and demonstrated enterprise interest you have to apply that critical thinking can solana

21:23maintain its speed advantage while sufficiently decentralizing can ethereum's l2s become seamless

21:28and cheap enough to negate solana's l1 speed advantage these are the big questions it leads back to those

21:34listener prompts from the source material hooks like will solana ever actually flip ethereum in adoption

21:40speed is one thing but network effects are powerful or that practical question if you had a thousand

21:46dollars to bet today on the dominant web3 architecture in five years solana's monolithic speed or

21:52ethereum's modular l2s where does the smart money go based on everything we know it's a tough call

21:58you're balancing immediate measurable performance and growth against long-term battle-tested security and

22:04decentralization it really requires synthesizing everything we've discussed the depths of the

22:09failures the heights of the comeback the underlying technical trade-offs hashtag tag outro okay so let's

22:15try and distill this down what are the key takeaways from our deep dive today the case against solana the bear case

22:20it's serious rooted in those past critical outages that really damage its core promise

22:25and that devastating financial link to ftx and alameda absolutely those are scars that don't just

22:30disappear but the bull case is equally compelling anchored in undeniable metrics that staggering 65 000

22:37plus tps potential from proof of history the clear recovery and defy activity shown by tvl growth and

22:44perhaps most significantly that real one old enterprise validation from a giant like visa seeking

22:50its speed and fast finality so solana isn't just you know limping along anymore it's actively competing

22:56it's been validated by serious players reignited by retail enthusiasm even if that came via meme coins

23:02initially yeah but that centralization question largely driven by those demanding hardware requirements

23:08it still looms that remains the key challenge they have to continuously address and demonstrably improve

23:13upon so the story is really one of bold tech ambition clashing head-on with market realities and

23:18technical hurdles it's shown incredible resilience and ability to come back from the brink but that

23:22fundamental architectural battle monolithic speed versus modular security that's still playing out

23:27across the entire web3 landscape which leads us to maybe one final thought to leave you with connecting

23:32directly back to solana's core strength we know speed that potential for 65 000 plus tps super low fees

23:40fast finality is its main differentiator it's why enterprises like visa are interested so the

23:45provocative question is this how fast do the competitors need to get exactly how quickly must rival

23:52layer ones or maybe more critically how quickly and how cheaply must ethereum's layer two solutions truly

23:58catch up to solana's level of transactional throughput and cost effectiveness before solana manages to lock in

24:03a permanent perhaps unshakable advantage in those really demanding high value use cases like global

24:10payments defy derivatives and massive online gaming that raise for performance and efficiency that's going

24:16to define so much of the next few years in crypto infrastructure it's definitely one to watch thanks

24:20for joining us for the deep dive we'll see you next time

24:33you

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