Solana’s Price Leaps To New Lifetime High Above $262, Two Years After Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Imploded

The native token of the Solana network shattered a fresh all-time high above $260, boosted by recent crypto-wide bullish performance and SOL exchange-traded fund filings flooding in after Gary Gensler’s departure.

The new milestone comes two years after the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire FTX and Alameda Research, which had drastically weighed on Solana’s price as they were key backers of the SOL ecosystem.

SOL Hits Fresh Record

Solana has notably been one of the top performers in this bull cycle. The token rose above the previous $260 record mark today, setting a fresh all-time high of $262.93, per data from CoinGecko.

SOL has gained 7% on the day, 21% over the last week, and 54% on the month. And to put Solana’s huge rebound in perspective, the coin’s one-year growth currently stands at 367.9%, more than quadrupling in value over the course of that period.

Solana had plunged to as low as $8 in late 2022 after the scandalous collapse of the FTX digital asset exchange as SOL had close ties to the firm and its now-convicted former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. However, the crypto has made a massive comeback in the last two years.

The latest jump above $260 earlier today came after the announcement that Gary Gensler, the SEC chair who spearheaded the agency’s crypto crackdown, will leave office on the day of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. 

Prospective SOL ETFs

On Thursday, Cboe BZX Exchange submitted four 19b-4 filings for firms to introduce spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States.

The 19b-4 filings differ from S-1 registration forms, which VanEck and 21Shares already submitted for their potential Solana funds in June and Canary Capital filed in late October.

As ZyCrypto reported, Bitwise registered a statutory trust in Delaware for a spot Solana ETF on Wednesday, indicating that it would join the SOL ETF race. Bitwise then officially filed its S-1 registration statement on Nov. 21.

If the SEC gives its green light, Bitwise, VanEck, 21Shares, and Canary Capital will have their ETFs listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s BZX Exchange.

Meanwhile, after the launch of spot SOL ETFs in Brazil, many crypto industry participants have been optimistic that similar SOL ETF products will soon debut in the U.S.