Solana sets a new record in January, thanks to…

• In January, Solana recorded a surge in new demand.
• This drove network activity on the chain to an all-time high.

Leading Layer 1 (L1) network Solana [SOL] has seen an uptick in new users, with the number of unique addresses created on the network reaching an all-time high in January, according to The Block’s data dashboard.

According to the data provider, the count of new addresses created on Solana during the 31-day period totaled 11.81 million. This represented an 18% growth from the 10 million new addresses that the network recorded in December. 

AMBCrypto found that January’s figure marked the network’s highest since May 2022, when it closed the month with a new address count of 11.72 million.

Source: The Block

AMBCrypto reported earlier that the recent surge in network activity on Solana was due to the anticipation around the Jupiter airdrop.

Described as the largest airdrop on the Solana network, it saw the distribution of claimed 622 million JUP tokens (worth $3.6 billion) to over 440,000 addresses successfully from Jupiter Exchange on the 31st of January.

On the day of the airdrop, the daily count of active addresses on the Solana network climbed to an all-time high.

Any impact on other sectors?

Although January was marked by increased demand for the Solana network, its non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sector failed to benefit from this. According to data from CryptoSlam, Solana recorded a decline in NFT sales volume. 

Information from the data provider showed that during the period under review, NFT sales volume on Solana was $239 million, a whopping 35% decrease from the $365 million recorded in sales volume in December.

This gap in month-over-month sales volume on Solana was due to the differences in total NFT transactions completed in the two months.

According to CryptoSlam, 6.5 million NFT sales transactions were completed on Solana in December. By the end of January, this had declined by 31%.

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On the other hand, Solana’s Decentralized Finance (DeFi) vertical recorded some growth in January. According to data from DefiLlama, the network’s total value locked (TVL) rose by 11% in January. 

For context, the network’s TVL was $1.41 billion on New Year’s Day. As of the 31st of January, it had climbed to $1.6 billion.