The 7-day average active addresses on the Solana ($SOL) ecosystem has surged from 378.2 million at the end of last year to 490.5 million as of January 7 representing an increase of 29.7% in so little time.

After the collapse of FTX, the price of Solana crashed over the cryptocurrency exchange’s involvement in its ecosystem as many lost faith in the project. After dropping below $10, SOL’s price recovered after Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin expressed support for the chain.

Solana, according to CryptoCompare’s latest Asset Report, has recovered so well that it has been one of the best performers so far this year, with an over 60% rally to $16 at the time of writing. Per the firm’s report, it has crossed its 50-day moving average which has “acted as a key resistance level over the last few months.”

The rise in active addresses on Solana, CryptoCompare wrote, can be attributed to increased activity from the airdrop of $BONK tokens to Solana non-fungible token (NFT) holders, as well as a sense of optimism around the network driven by Buterin’s support and continued developer activity.

Source: CryptoCompare

Solana’s community has also launched the “Solana Sandstorm” online hackathon, which is ongoing until January 23.  Activity on the network also rose because $BONK was airdropped to Solan NFT holders, meaning the meme-inspired cryptocurrency was “able to target the most active part of Solana’s community.”

As reported, a former Goldman Sachs executive, Raoul Pal, is bullish on Solana. Pal said that Solana is “building a consumer chain” and has done deals with Meta, Google, Discord and others, and has a store in Manhattan selling Solana merchandise.

He believes that the use of NFTs and other digital assets is only going to explode in the next few years and Solana reminds him of Ethereum back in 2018 when it was down 97% and nobody cared about it.

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