In 2025, Solana (SOL) remains a hot topic in the cryptocurrency market. Once hailed as an “Ethereum killer” for its groundbreaking transaction speeds and low fees, Solana has faced significant headwinds. Following the massive blow of the FTX bankruptcy, the recent Pump.fun meme coin frenzy has further eroded trust in the ecosystem.
While a meme coin surge briefly revitalized the Solana ecosystem in early 2025, a subsequent rise in rug pull scams and the lingering pressure from FTX asset sales have plunged Solana back into a challenging phase. This article delves into the three primary threats currently confronting Solana and explores its potential survival strategies for recovery.
The Lingering Shadow of FTX: An Unfinished Aftermath
The November 2022 collapse of FTX inflicted deep wounds on Solana. The price of SOL plummeted by 60% in a single week, and the repercussions continue to impact the market in 2025. The FTX liquidators auctioned off its entire 41 million SOL holdings. While some were locked up until March 2025, the remainder will be linearly released until 2028. This potential for continuous sell-off pressure creates ongoing market uncertainty and dampens investor sentiment.
As of April 2025, the price of Solana hovers around $130, approximately 50% lower than its January peak. The pattern of 5-10% price drops whenever FTX releases its holdings further amplifies investor anxiety.
Beyond being a major investor, FTX was a crucial infrastructure supporter for the Solana ecosystem. Its demise triggered a cascade of problems, including the paralysis of Serum, a Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX), the shutdown of the Sollet web wallet service, and the cancellation of numerous pending venture capital investments. Consequently, Solana’s Total Value Locked (TVL) plummeted by a staggering 88% in 2023, from $10 billion to $1.2 billion, accelerating the ecosystem’s contraction.
Pump.fun Debacle: Exposing Solana’s Vulnerability
From late 2024 into early 2025, the Solana ecosystem experienced an unprecedented meme coin frenzy centered around the Pump.fun platform. An average of over 200 new meme coins were launched daily on Pump.fun. However, a staggering 72% of these turned out to be rug pull scams, causing significant losses for investors.
Pump.fun enabled anonymous developers to easily create meme coins for under $20. They would then aggressively promote these coins on social media, driving their prices up by 500-1,000% or more, only to drain the liquidity pool (rug pull) and disappear. Notable examples include the MOONKE coin, which saw $4 million in liquidity vanish within 12 hours, and the SNAKE coin, where the developer absconded with $2.4 million.
A report by blockchain analytics firm CertiK revealed that Solana accounted for 31% of all blockchain scams in the first quarter of 2025, 1.7 times higher than Ethereum (18%). The average quarterly loss amounted to $85 million. This Pump.fun crisis significantly damaged the credibility of the entire Solana ecosystem, contributing to a 40% decrease in Solana-based DEX trading volume as of March 2025.
Technical Limitations: The Dilemma of a “High-Speed Blockchain”
Despite its touted high transaction speeds, Solana has recorded more than one mainnet outage annually, indicating ongoing stability concerns. While the Firedancer upgrade aimed at improving network performance is underway in 2025, network halts still occur, highlighting unresolved issues. Furthermore, transaction fees can surge tenfold during periods of high network activity.
Ethereum, Solana’s primary competitor, has significantly improved user convenience by reducing Layer 2 fees to under $0.01 with the Dencun upgrade. In contrast, Solana’s developer activity index was only 35% of Ethereum’s as of March 2025, and its NFT market share has declined from 18% to 9%, indicating struggles in maintaining competitiveness. This suggests that despite its technical advantages, Solana faces challenges in ecosystem expansion and user acquisition.
Three Essential Conditions for Solana’s Survival
For Solana to overcome its current challenges and rebound, it urgently needs to fulfill the following three essential conditions:
✅ Launch Trust Recovery Initiatives
The Solana Foundation plans to introduce the ‘SAFE-SOL’ program starting in June 2025 to vouch for the credibility of new projects. Increased collaboration with the Pump.fun platform is expected, including the implementation of KYC (Know Your Customer) and mandatory smart contracts to prevent rug pulls. These efforts will be crucial in alleviating investor concerns and restoring trust in the Solana ecosystem.
✅ Stabilize Technical Infrastructure
Successfully completing the Firedancer upgrade to achieve its target transaction speed of 5,000+ TPS and a network uptime of over 99.99% is paramount. Additionally, updating the dynamic fee adjustment algorithm to reduce transaction fee volatility and improve predictability is necessary. Building a stable network environment is essential for enhancing user experience and attracting more projects and users.
✅ Implement Ecosystem Restructuring Strategies
Launching ‘Solayer,’ a liquid staking token (LST) protocol similar to Ethereum’s EigenLayer, could attract new DeFi projects. Increasing the frequency of hackathons targeting Korean and Japanese developers can foster ecosystem expansion into the Asian market. These initiatives will help diversify the Solana ecosystem and identify new growth drivers.
Conclusion: A Critical Juncture for Solana
In 2025, Solana finds itself at a critical juncture, grappling with the lingering effects of the FTX collapse and the fresh wounds inflicted by the Pump.fun meme coin scams. Despite the underlying potential of its core technology, these successive setbacks have severely damaged the Solana ecosystem’s credibility, casting a shadow over its future. To rebound, Solana must prioritize restoring trust and building a secure and healthy ecosystem. The Solana Foundation’s proactive efforts in trust recovery and the successful stabilization of its technical infrastructure will be decisive in determining Solana’s fate in 2025. Therefore, investors should carefully analyze the current crisis and cautiously evaluate Solana’s recovery prospects before making investment decisions.
