The systemic connection of the Solana ecosystem with the collapsed FTX exchange and the Alameda Research fund has greatly affected its reputation. Despite negative evaluations from the community, the protocol itself has managed to withstand the impact,
and the emergence of new services increasingly allows it to avoid unwanted associations. The Solana network remains technically innovative, and there is an increase in activity both in terms of the number of participating developers in projects and the amount of funds circulating in existing decentralized finance protocols.
A significant downside of Solana is the excessive centralization of nodes in favor of speed, and network stoppages that have occurred in the past. Situations where developers stop the operation of an entire blockchain are rare and anomalous, but such cases have occurred repeatedly with Solana.
There is still no consensus on the method of representing Bitcoin on the Solana blockchain. Over ten technically suitable tokens are already competing for user liquidity. The previously used soBTC has been recognized as non-functional, and its price has long been disconnected from the price of Bitcoin and is currently around $1,000 per token. As a result, liquidity pools in Solana's financial protocols are practically absent for the main asset and flagship of the sector. Even if the situation changes, the question of the reliability of using Bitcoin in protocols on Solana will remain open.
Competing blockchains with unique characteristics continue to expand in the crypto sphere. Quickly developing networks like Aptos, Sui, and other blockchains that use programming languages other than Solidity and similarly offer users record-low fees and fast transaction speeds could potentially overshadow Solana in the future.
