As a reminder, Solana and Avalanche have become one of the most popular projects in 2021 thanks to their development and at the same time the growth of native tokens. Solana SOL, for example, managed to move up to number five in the cryptocurrency market capitalization ranking in a matter of months. In one year, the coin has grown by 10,166 percent.

On January 1, 2021, it was worth $1.52, and already on November 6 it set a current record at $259.

Solana SOL exchange rate chart for the year

Avalanche has already managed to reach the tenth line of the coin ranking, although it then dropped one position lower. On January first, the AVAX cryptocurrency was valued at $3.21. The project’s current rate record is $144 from November 21.

Avalanche AVAX rate chart for the year

Sam himself is known for his long-term support of the Solana project. Specifically, back on January 9th he suggested a prominent member of the cryptocurrency community under the nickname CoinMamba to buy up all of his SOL at three dollars, after which he advised him to get out. The tweet eventually became legendary – after all, the cryptocurrency has since grown by leaps and bounds.

Which cryptocurrency is better than Bitcoin?

In a recent interview, the 29-year-old Bankman-Fried shared his vision of which projects could “survive” a potential bear market after all cryptocurrencies have risen so rapidly. He himself believes that a collapse is almost inevitable, as bull phases of the market are always followed by bear phases.

Recall that a bullish phase of the cryptocurrency market is a period of growth. The bearish phase, on the other hand, is characterised by a prolonged collapse of assets that lasts at least a year - and sometimes more. In other words, it is like the current market correction after Bitcoin's rise to a high of $69,000, but with much larger declines.

However, the next two years will see “institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies” on a broader scale, Sam Bankman-Fried believes. In other words, digital assets will become a favoured tool for large organisations or even entire nations. After all, Bitcoin recently became legal tender in El Salvador, so other states could replicate it – and on a larger scale.

Solana’s rise in price over the past year

Will a major market decline like the one we saw in 2018 be repeated? According to the billionaire, such a possibility cannot be ruled out either. Only projects that have a fundamental purpose and utility will survive this period. Here is the entrepreneur’s rejoinder in which he shares his market vision. The quote is from CryptoPotato.

The best projects are the ones that have really loyal fans and those that have their own scope of use. Start-ups created solely on a HYIP will fail.

Accordingly, long-term investors should clearly not bet on meme-tokens, which are being bought by mass novice investors on the backdrop of their growth. However, any investor has to make their own financial decisions, so they will have to make choices here as well.

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX

Bankman-Fried is confident that Solana fits the description of a significant project, which can handle thousands of transactions per second. Thus Solana could even “become the new Bitcoin”. Furthermore, Sam Bankman-Fried advises to take a closer look at Avalanche, another fundamentally useful project.


While we believe Bankman-Fried's approach is appropriate, investors should still not underestimate the bear market. Cryptocurrencies become cheaper at an incredible rate during the down phase. As such, don't expect any cryptocurrency to magically rise during this period - it is possible, but unlikely.