Is Solana The Next FTX’s Victim

GM Readers! It's BitDegree Insider time. Let's get this Friday going.

Today's selection:

• Solana Drama
• OKX Lures Out Solana-Based Startups
• New FTX CEO Shocked By How Bad Things Are
• Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle.
• Bite-Sized News

SOLANA DRAMA

The FTX collapse's aftermath is felt all over the industry. But in some places it's way more intense than in others. For example, Solana is having a really bad time. 

Binance announced that they're suspending USDT and USDC deposits on Solana. 

OKX is removing them from its listing entirely. Crypto.com, KuCoin, Bybit and BitMEX made similar decisions.

So why is that?

Crypto exchanges are probably hedging against the risks associated with the Solana project's liquidity crisis.

At its peak last November, DeFi-apps stored more than $10 billion in Solana's network.

The blockchain's popularity was fuelled by cryptocurrency industry's "stars," including Sam Bankman-Fried.

A year later, the total value of such funds dropped to $300 million. And Bankman-Fried's "crypto-death" led to a negative view of Solana. 

The decrease has been happening gradually.

But the sharpest decline in TLV (Total Value Locked) occurred recently, when Solana-based applications saw $700 million disappearing in the course of 2 weeks. 

So... Is this the end for Solana?

There are those who think that FTX's fall will make the valuation of some crypto projects more realistic and help bring order to the industry.

"It's much better for Solana that its relationship with the Sam Bankman-Fried's empire ends now. Even if they have to go through a lot of short-term pain in the meantime," says Jack Saracco, co-founder of the payments company Ping.

The only question is whether serious short-term pain will turn into another high-profile fall. At this point, it's too early to rule out a realistic scenario.

However, we do feel like giving a recommendation:

If you're holding some stablecoins on the Solana network... you better do something about that. You don't wanna end up with your funds locked in.

In addition, we think it would be a good idea to get rid of wrapped BTC and ETH on the Solana network if you have any of them as well.

TL;DR: Solana is having a bad time. It has been severely affected by the FTX collapse. Many signs signal its demise. But they may get through this.

TODAY'S ISSUE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY LEDGER

These past two weeks made it clear you better make sure that your money is safe. One way of doing so is not keeping your money in a crypto exchange. And using a Ledger Wallet instead.

Here's what you can do with it:

• Protect your crypto, NFTs, and tokens. Thanks to EAL5+ Certified Secure Chip, you can rest assured it's out of hackers' reach.
• Manage over 5,500 digital assets via 100 apps. At the same time. More memory. More possibilities.
• NFT transactions made easy. Full transparency and user-friendly interface in Ledger Live.

The thing is simple. It's dangerous out there! Don't wait and choose your Ledger hardware wallet!

OKX LURES STARTUPS FROM SOLANA

Seeing Solana falling down the vortex of FTX's aftermath, OKX, the crypto exchange, has made a rather aggressive move.

OKX launched a $100 million commitment to support projects that are currently experiencing liquidity problems.

And this money is offered to those... that will be willing to leave Solana and move to the OKX chain. 

OKX Chain is a competitor to Binance Smart Chain and other Ethereum-compatible blockchains. It offers an ecosystem for building and running WEB3 applications.

So what they're doing is... Grabbing the moment and trying to steal others' gains and make them their own. Maybe this will work out. We'll see.

TL;DR: OKX created a $100 million fund for those startups who will be willing to leave the Solana chain and move to OKX chain.

NEW FTX CEO SHOCKED BY HOW BAD THINGS ARE

Sam Bankman-Fried is no longer the FTX CEO. FTX has a new Chief Executive Officer. 

His name is John Ray III. And he's got something to say.

"Never in my career have I seen such chaos in corporate control and such a lack of reliable financial data," is how he described his first impression.

John Ray III is considered one of the best experts on finance, bankruptcies and liquidations.

20 years ago he supervised the bankruptcy of the energy giant Enron, a story that made a lot of noise. Ray has noted that FTX is doing far worse than Enron.

'All control has been concentrated in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, ignorant and potentially compromised individuals. This situation is unprecedented,' said the new boss.

So yep. That's the mess that we're all in. Godspeed, you!

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S PUZZLE

So yesterday we presented you with this beauty:

Many of you tried solving it, and the majority of you got the correct answer!

The answer is 15.

Squares: 9 small ones, 4 medium ones, 1 large one + 1 in the BitDegree Insider logo.

So, 9 + 4 + 1 +1 = 15 Congrats!

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Bahamas Regulator Orders FTX to Move Its Digital Assets to Government Wallet. FTX's troubles are international.
• Jump Crypto Says It's Not Shutting Down. The ripple effects are not taking everyone down.
• FTX Chooses Restructuring Administration Firm Kroll as Its Claims Agent. Restructuring from zero.
• Australian-Based Arkon Energy Secures $28M Funding to Boost Bitcoin Mining. While some are collapsing, others are expanding.