The story of Solana’s fall and its rise from its own ashes is rather inspirational. It is not that often that we get to hear failed altcoins bounce back to their higher highs at this scale.

The crash that started with the implosion of FTX was the end of Solana, according to several industry experts. An altcoin that tried and failed to challenge the champions: Bitcoin and Ethereum.

But Solana was not ready to back off that easily. From the crash in November 2022, where the value plummeted to a mere $10, and yet today, Solana is once again hovering around the $200 mark.

The Fall of Solana: From FTX Crash to Near Collapse

What many thought was the endgame for Solana came in November 2022. The fall of FTX, which was a close associate of Solana, meant Solana would soon die out. It was indeed a time of extreme crisis.

Investors and holders dropped Solana overnight and migrated elsewhere. As Solana faced certain death, the core team stayed loyal and held together during this crisis.

Even during the devastating fall, they were unified in one cause – to revive Solana to its former glory. This was no easy task, yet the validators and developers stayed, which was one key reason for Solana’s revival.

Solana was at one point compared to EOS and NEAR, which were both branded as Ethereum killers. Since neither of these coins recovered from their crash, many believed Solana’s fate was not much different, but team Solana proved them wrong.

The Rise of Solana: Rebuilding Trust and Technology

Before 2023, many of the low-profile partnerships and scheduled releases were dropped; Solana was seen gasping for air. But from 2023, things were about to change. The core team focused on what could be salvaged from the wreck and started working on it.

A condition for revival was soon turning up as new institutional partnerships, a loyal community, and engineering fixes were being set up. Slowly, Solana was no longer on the path of survival; it was on a road to expansion.

One of the most targeted approaches was to fix the stability issue that has been plaguing Solana’s system. Once this herculean task was accomplished, Solana started its expansion run.

The next challenge that was ahead of Solana was to bring attention back to its relevance. With an active team working day and night to revive Solana, it started positioning itself as a user-friendly developer that was creating solutions for the general public.

One significant achievement that Solana could bag was the contract with Visa. Since Solana was designed as an application for infrastructure development, developers focused on regaining this brand value, and on September 5th, 2023, Visa transferred its stablecoin department to the Solana blockchain.

This was a huge turnaround for Solana. As transactions across the world happened over Visa cards, Solana’s blockchain was relentlessly processing transactions without fail. Solana had replaced the traditional escrow write-transfer system and sped up the entire process. Solana was back on track.

The Transition Phase: From Recovery to Real-World Adoption

The partnership with Visa meant that Solana was no longer in the experimental stage; it had transitioned to an institutional blockchain that was performing real-world services 24×7 throughout the globe.

With Visa now performing millions of transactions in USDC across Solana, the fate was changed forever, and Solana rose from the ashes and soared high up, once again.

The Competition: Solana vs. Ethereum in 2025

To analyze the competitive threat Solana poses to Ethereum, we must study their strengths and weaknesses side by side. Both blockchains are different in several ways, and this makes their real-world applicability different as well.

Solana is a fast blockchain working on the Proof-of-History (PoH) model, which seems ideal for retail adoptions where speed is of paramount importance. Ethereum is relatively slow and expensive, making it pose no challenge to Solana in this segment.

Even though Solana is currently facing a centralization risk, certain retail applications are proving that it is not considered to be a big problem by such customers, for instance, Visa using the Solana blockchain for transactions.

Another direct domain where Solana and Ethereum come into competition is building dApps. The Solana blockchain is largely preferred by developers for its superior performance and speed. Even though Ethereum has a more robust toolkit, Solana outweighing Ethereum in the performance department could be a positive sign that Solana can indeed pose a challenge to Ethereum.

Conclusion: Solana’s Comeback Story and Future Potential

From a fall that seemed to have no viable recovery, Solana has scaled much bigger heights. This glorious return could mean that Solana can indeed pose a challenge to Ethereum.

As the crypto domain itself is a sea of uncertainty, declaring permanent winners is a tough choice. From what appears to be a strong comeback, Solana has marked its strength and resilience.

FAQs

From the rising number of developers being added to the Solana ecosystem, it seems that Solana can indeed compete with Ethereum.

The base layer that is designed for high throughput, and the monolithic blockchain combined, give Solana an edge on microtransactions.

Solana aimed to solve Ethereum’s scalability issue, and this was one of the key reasons why it was branded as an Ethereum killer.

Even though the initial specifications matched Solana as an Ethereum killer, a detailed review of their architecture reveals that they are two distinct technologies that compete with strengths and weaknesses complementary to each other.

Solana’s fall was primarily due to its association with FTX. With highly reputable new associates like Visa, it is less likely that Solana will fall like before. But the developer backing is primarily what is keeping the system alive and healthy