Solana has been in and around the top ten cryptocurrency list for a while now. It has racked up a global market cap of roughly $27 billion in just four years, and its native currency, SOL, is often considered a Wall Street favourite.

However, things have been rocky for Solana in the last few weeks. The price of the cryptocurrency slid significantly during last Friday's trading session. Moreover, traders and investment firms have not been able to execute transactions on the network, even though it has touted itself as one of the most scalable blockchains with lightning-fast transaction speeds.

The issue carried over to the next day, resulting in the network's Twitter account stating that it has been "experiencing high levels of network congestion".

Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko also stated that bots sending duplicate transactions might have caused the congestion. Traders have noticed these gaps in the network’s infrastructure and have begun to express their frustration.

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"How can anyone possibly trust the Solana network with real capital after a meltdown like today?" Jim Greco, a market structure guru, and a former executive at KCG, said in a tweet on Friday night.

The increased frustration towards the network has been surprising as Solana has been regarded as the darling of Wall Street and large trading firms.

The network completed one of its most extensive fund-raising campaigns, worth $314 million, in June 2021. And among many other USPs, the network’s scalability is what made it attractive to large trading firms and Wall Street in general. However, it is this very aspect that has got traders frustrated.

Why are traders unhappy with the network?

Solana's network covers a broad trading ground, such as NFTs and DeFi. Their logjam resulted in countless users not being able to participate in any of these sectors, especially when the NFT market is booming and rival networks of Ethereum are capitalising on their high transaction costs.

The inability to leverage Solana’s position on a decentralised venue is another aspect that has got traders complaining. This means that traders cannot add to their position before running the risk of liquidation.

All this has led traders to question Solana's position as the preferred crypto platform for Wall Street. This is especially given the network’s promise of being an incredibly scalable platform, which is the central aspect that attracted large trading firms and traders on Wall Street.

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(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Jan 31, 2022 3:38 PM IST