Solana Blockchain Raising Up to $450M: Report

Solana, the blockchain backed by FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, is raising between $300 million and $450 million, according to a report Friday by Decrypt, largely citing anonymous sources.

• Solana had planned on closing a smaller round in March but boosted its ambitions in response to strong demand, the report said.
• The project plans to use the funds, in part, to become a go-to place for decentralized applications, taking aim at the Ethereum blockchain, the current leader in the space, the report said.
• Decrypt executives didn't deny the report, Decrypt said.
• Alameda, a trading firm led by Bankman-Fried, has been heavily investing in the Solana ecosystem in a bid to promote an Ethereum alternative capable of faster transactions and higher scalability. The Ethereum blockchain has become increasingly congested, leading to an increase in transactional tariffs known as “gas fees.”
• Bankman-Fried’s team chose to build Serum, a decentralized exchange (DEX), on Solana.
• Ethereum currently handles about 15 transactions per second (TPS), while Solana is capable of more than 1,000 TPS, according to data from Blockchair and Solana Beach. The project claims its maximum speed is many times in excess of that.
• The price of SOL, the native token of Solana, began the year at less than $2. In recent trading, it was at $39.87, up more than 5% in the last 24 hours.