Solana Labs COO sees ‘crucible moment’ for ecosystem amid FTX crisis

Solana Labs COO Raj Gokal weighed in on the FTX crisis that will see its non-U.S. assets sold to Binance, calling it a “crucible moment” for the Solana ecosystem that has close ties to the collapsing crypto exchange. 

“Binance seems to care about the ecosystem, but they have a lot of work on their hands,” he wrote on Twitter. “I’m hopeful they can work out a good deal with FTX.”

The price of Solana’s native coin SOL has plummeted over 40% to $16.58 over the last 24 hours, with the price of Solana ecosystem tokens like Serum also collapsing on the back of the FTX crisis. The global selloff of crypto assets triggered by news of FTX’s problems hit just as $1 billion of SOL is set to unstake in less than 24 hours. Representing 13% of the coin’s circulating supply, it’s the second-largest unstaking of SOL by validators, raising concerns of a further negative impact on price.

Image: CoinGecko.

“This crucible moment for the Solana ecosystem is as difficult as the last one,” Gokal wrote. “The difference is there are 10x more of us to band together this time. Next time, there will be 10x more. Each time, we’re stronger. The fundamentals are better.”

Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko was keen to reassure the Solana community, tweeting: “Solana Labs, a U.S. corporation, didn’t have any assets on FTX.com, so we still have tons of runway, and luckily still a small team.”

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