Solana In 2023: A Look Back At Top Storylines, Coin Surge — Plus Partnerships With Visa, Mastercard, Shopify And More

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) will end 2023 on a high note after soaring to a new 52-week high in December and becoming one of the most talked about cryptocurrencies.

Solana Solstice: Interest in the digital asset exploded in recent weeks thanks to many items, including airdrops like Jito (CRYPTO: JTO), to people who participated in a Solana-based liquid staking protocol.

The launch of certain meme coins like Bonk (CRYPTO: BONK) and Dogwifhat (CRYPTO: WIF) have also sparked interest in Solana and Solana non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The cryptocurrency, which launched in 2020, is now the fourth-largest digital coin with a market capitalization of $45.1 billion.

Related Link: If You Gifted Your Family $100 In Bitcoin, Dogecoin And Ethereum Last Christmas, Here’s How Much They Would Have This Christmas

Solana shared a recap of 2023 on social media, which it dubbed the “Solana Solstice.”

1/ It’s time to celebrate #SolanaSolstice again! ☀️In 2023, the community started a movement only possible on Solana — while Solana became a network of choice for developers and institutions.https://t.co/0ll00mm57tHere’s how you made 2023 the year of the Solana community🧵 pic.twitter.com/M9w4YiXiy6

— Solana (@solana) December 21, 2023

“In 2023, the community started a movement only possible on Solana – while Solana became a network of choice for developers and institutions,” the post read.

The thread of tweets starts with Bonk, which people started receiving in December 2022 for participating in the Solana community. The crypto has received recent attention and was even added to the Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) platform.

Solana highlighted the Solana Saga mobile phone, which began shipping in 2023. In December 2023, the phone was sold out, with many racing to buy the phones that came with Bonk allocation.

The cryptocurrency also highlighted the migration of the Helium Network to Solana, which was completed in April.

Solana began tracking the network’s carbon footprint in real-time at SolanaClimate.com in March 2023. The Solana Foundation has pledged to use offsets to make the network carbon-neutral.

In April, Solana Labs released a ChatGPT plugin, which brought “the power of artificial intelligence and blockchain together.”

“Solana Labs has created an open-source reference implementation for a ChatGPT…