The crypto world is abuzz with excitement as Solana continues to make waves in the industry. In a recent episode of Unlayered, hosts Saul and Dave dive deep into the hottest topics currently dominating the Solana ecosystem. From the highly anticipated Jupiter airdrop to the thriving meme coin scene and the revolutionary Saga phone, this roundtable discussion offers valuable insights into the current state of Solana and its potential for future growth.

Solana's Meme Coin Mania

Solana has unexpectedly become the epicenter of the latest meme coin craze, outpacing other blockchain networks in terms of market cap growth and trading volume. This surge in meme coin activity is not just a fleeting trend but a significant indicator of Solana's growing dominance in the crypto space.

Dave highlights the current state of affairs: "If you look at the top meme coins by market cap, bonk is three at about 800 million dog dog with hat, 400 million. Now people are calling for that to flip bonk. And then if you keep going down on this actually, my row, which is another Solana one, 200 million."

This unprecedented growth in Solana-based meme coins is particularly noteworthy when compared to other chains. As Saul points out, "The point is in all these charts have gone up in the last seven days and all the other chains gone down or flat. That is wild to me and that is probably a handset. What's to come?"

The rise of Solana meme coins is not just about speculative trading. It represents a new form of engagement with pop culture and current events. Saul observes, "I see a world where people kind of flex how in tune they are with pop culture by making bets on tickers like this. And that is not stupid. I think that's actually pretty fun for a lot of people."

This trend is uniquely suited to Solana due to its low transaction costs and high throughput. Dave explains, "You can only do this on Solana just because of how cheap it is to launch meme coins, to trade them at small size, right? People don't want to allocate, you know, 10k into this stuff and pay a hundred in gas."

The Saga Phone: A Game-Changer for Crypto Mobile

The Saga phone, developed by Solana Labs, has emerged as a pivotal player in the ecosystem's growth. Initially facing challenges in adoption, the phone has seen a remarkable turnaround, largely driven by the success of Solana's meme coins and associated airdrops.

Saul recounts the phone's journey: "Literally, we were talking to Stephen to essentially created the phone, you know, lead engineer at labs for the phone, Solana Labs. This is what in May, we talked to him in May, the phone struggled with sales. It went on sale basically two months after it launched for half off."

The turning point came with the rise of Bonk and its associated airdrop. "It wasn't until Bong went up in value and the air drop on it was essentially worth more than the entry price to the phone, that they sold all of them in like a few days or whatever," Saul explains.

This surge in demand has not only boosted Saga phone sales but has also catalyzed a new wave of app development for the device. Saul notes, "App developers came in to this gold rush, access protocols, trying to first do big air drop. That's almost the same amount as Bong at this point in the US dollar terms. Now everyone has a saga strategy."

The Saga phone's unique selling point is its built-in secure hardware wallet, allowing users to sign transactions with their fingerprint. This feature, combined with the potential for exclusive airdrops, has made the Saga phone an attractive proposition for crypto enthusiasts.

Rethinking the Saga Phone's Marketing Strategy

While the Saga phone has gained traction, there's room for improvement in its marketing approach. Dave suggests a shift in perspective: "I think they just almost need to move away from the fact that it is a phone. And it just becomes this secure seed storage device, which is also an air drop machine effectively."

This reframing could help differentiate the Saga phone from traditional high-end smartphones and focus on its unique value proposition in the crypto space. Dave adds, "If you're almost financializing the purchase of a piece of hardware, then suddenly it doesn't matter the quality. It doesn't matter that it took a few extra weeks to ship and that it's not quite up to the specs of the latest iPhone 16, because you're not getting the air drops on the iPhone 16."

The Future of Saga: Pre-orders and Potential

With the success of the first batch of Saga phones, attention is now turning to the next iteration. Saul shares his thoughts on the potential scale of the next release: "Where does that number land? I think it's definitely more than 20,000 phones because they sold all those out and people are just going to now hold this recency bias and assume that the next batch of phones will make them rich."

However, he cautions against expecting the same level of returns as the first batch, noting that the positioning for the new phone is different: "Their position in this new phone more is like a, there's a ref link attached to it. There's a leaderboard for like getting people to buy it."

Despite these changes, the potential for the Saga phone to become a mainstream crypto device remains high. Dave suggests a strategy for success: "I think it's successful if it can receive enough air drops to pay for everyone's phone again. I think if that becomes the matter of sign up for the phone and it will be free. And hopefully you receive more air drops than it was actually worth."

The Power of Helium Mobile

An exciting development in the Saga phone ecosystem is the integration of Helium mobile. Saul shares his personal experience: "In nine days, I made about $9 worth of mobile tokens. That granted price is really volatile, but it's not bad. So that kind of tracks out to about $30 a month or so. That's more than the cost of the plan."

This model of essentially getting paid to use a mobile service could be a game-changer in the telecom industry. Dave points out the potential: "If you use helium, as you say, it reduces your costs. And if you then mine it from your microphone, then suddenly, no, you're probably getting a free phone from all the air drops. We're also getting free coverage from just mining mobile every month."

The Jupiter Airdrop: A Milestone for Solana

The upcoming Jupiter airdrop is generating significant buzz in the Solana community. Dave expresses his excitement: "I'm fully psyched. We were talking about it a little bit before came on air. And I think for me, it's the biggest airdrop since Uniswap."

The scale of the Jupiter airdrop is potentially unprecedented. Dave estimates, "I think it will be probably four billion plus. I think that's basically going to be the biggest airdrop, I want to say that out of any protocol, I could be wrong on that. But it's if it's not the biggest, it's certainly right up there."

This airdrop is expected to have a significant impact on the Solana ecosystem. Dave predicts, "I think it's just going to be driving huge amounts of volume on the Slyaner ecosystem for years, because it sounds like they are going to potentially be doing it every January."

The Impact on Solana's Ecosystem

The Jupiter airdrop is expected to inject a substantial amount of capital into the Solana ecosystem. Dave compares it to current trading volumes: "Currently we see about 100,000 soul volume on NFTs on Salana. That's about $10 million a day. I think we're going to see around a billion dollar cash injection in a couple of weeks. So it's 100 X, what the daily NFT trading volumes are."

This influx of capital could have far-reaching effects on various aspects of the Solana ecosystem, including SPL tokens, meme coins, and NFTs. Dave is optimistic about the potential impact: "I'm hyper bullish. And I think this is sort of the next, next leg really in Salana story of this bull market."

Valuation Expectations for Jupiter

Speculating on the potential valuation of Jupiter post-airdrop, Dave suggests, "I think it can, I think it will get to a dollar in the early days for sure. And I think it could easily go higher than that. That would put the FTV fully diluted valuation at 10 billion, maybe goes $2, 20 billion."

While these numbers might seem high, especially compared to established protocols like Uniswap, Dave notes that the bull market dynamics could support such valuations: "FTV always seems to be a meme during bull markets, not so much during better markets."

The Wealth Effect and Increased Trading Volume

One of the most striking developments in the Solana ecosystem is the significant increase in trading volume, particularly among high-value traders. Saul highlights a revealing statistic: "In the last week, 130 people did over a million in weekly volume. 1,500 did 100k to 1,050,000 did 10 to 100k. That's a very material amount of people."

This surge in high-value trading represents a significant shift from just a few months ago. Saul notes, "If we go back to just, I don't know, the summer, there was 5,000 people total using this, just 5k. And now there's 5k doing tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars of volume on Jupiter."

Dave adds context to these numbers: "It's basically saying that 20% of all users on Jupiter are doing more than $1,000 in volume. So they're all four figures or more. So that's like, you can't really make that dollar store kind of chain meme anymore. Like people with money are kind of using this in decent size for retail especially."

Factors Driving Solana's Growth

Several factors are contributing to Solana's remarkable growth. Dave points out two key elements: "Seoul has 12x or something from the absolute bottom in a year. And the SPL tokens have generally done 10x, if not a lot more. And the mean coins, some of them have done 100x, if not more. So, you know, there's huge amounts of wealth that have been created."

Additionally, the attraction of potential airdrops is drawing liquidity into the ecosystem. Dave explains, "And then the other thing is how quickly liquidity will travel if there is a drop incentives. And we saw it during the last bull market. So I'm really not surprised."

Crossing the Chasm: Solana's Mainstream Moment

The hosts agree that Solana has reached a pivotal moment in its development. Saul states, "I think it's clear to me that we've kind of crossed this chasm. We have the capital here and really interesting things will be happening on Slana."

This sentiment is echoed by Dave, who points to institutional recognition as a sign of Solana's growing prominence: "Franklin Templeton on their US Twitter account, including basically saying Bitcoin, ETH and so on. Yeah. Saying what did they say about ETH is having a midlife crisis, and then including so there's one of the big three."

The Future of the Bull Market

Looking ahead, both hosts express optimism about the potential for further growth in the crypto market, particularly for Solana. Dave cautions against underestimating the market's potential: "People who think that with is going to top out a dollar, which is, you know, it's like a two x from here or something. It's like, no, this is everything is about to go crazy."

Saul agrees, suggesting that traditional top signals may not apply in this cycle: "The top signals for the last market are going to look very different from this market. That's the takeaway from this Franklin Templeton thing is like, it's not a top signal anymore. Now that's like the baseline. So multiply that by 10. And that is actually the real top signal."

The Role of Points in DeFi Protocols

The discussion also touched on the emerging trend of "points" in DeFi protocols. Points are seen as a way to separate social capital from financial capital within these ecosystems. Saul explains, "The whole point of points is you want to separate social capital from financial capital. Social capital is like your reputation in a system. It identifies have you contributed value to this platform?"

This system allows protocols to reward contributors more effectively and potentially mitigate some of the issues seen with previous token distribution methods. Saul adds, "You want to reward good contributors. You don't want to just reward everybody. And this is why you can't actually give the tokens straight up to people."

The Evolution of Points Systems

The hosts discuss various approaches to implementing points systems, including linear, convex, and concave distribution models. Saul suggests that these systems will likely become more sophisticated over time: "I think we're going to actually see things like decay systems where maybe over time, like you get diluted, if you don't continually add value, like your points don't just exist into perpetuity at the same rate."

Dave highlights the importance of separating points from actual tokens: "Because previously, if you wanted to say disproportionately benefit the smaller users or disproportionately benefit the earlier users, what they were doing in the last bull market is saying, okay, here's an air drop moment in time. We've looked retrospectively and we've that's how we've allocated it."

Challenges and Considerations for Points Systems

While points systems offer many benefits, they also come with challenges. Dave points out a potential issue: "Obviously, by having points which don't have a financial amount associated with them, you are effectively giving all the power and all the control to the protocols developers."

This concern is illustrated by a recent controversy involving margin-fi, where early users felt dismissed when the protocol suggested that those farming for a potential airdrop were "just mercenaries." Dave argues, "I do think we need to be wary at the same time and need to continue to put pressure, I think, onto these teams, basically so they're not going to take the piss."

The Importance of Product-Market Fit

Saul emphasizes the importance of having a compelling product, regardless of token incentives: "Look at Uniswap, it's the product that people use. They ate the impermanent loss because people just wanted to LP and they wanted to trade tokens. They had no plans to do a token until Sushi came around, even Jupiter. Everyone used it."

This underscores the idea that sustainable success in the crypto space comes from creating value for users, not just from the promise of token rewards.

The Unique Position of Borrowing and Lending Protocols

The hosts acknowledge that borrowing and lending protocols face unique challenges, particularly in their early stages. Dave notes, "At the start of a Boroland protocol, there is no yield because the other side of it should be the demand. And if there's no supply, there's no demand. So you have to just deepen projects. You have to incentivize that supply and you're incentivizing it by promising an airdrop. That is the yield."

This highlights the delicate balance these protocols must strike between attracting early adopters and ensuring long-term sustainability.

Conclusion: Solana's Bright Future

As the discussion wraps up, both hosts express optimism about Solana's future. The combination of innovative technologies like the Saga phone, the thriving meme coin ecosystem, and major events like the Jupiter airdrop are positioning Solana as a leading force in the crypto industry.

Dave sums up the sentiment: "I think as well, like the meme coins starting the bull market and retail aren't even here yet. That's the crazy thing. They're still not here. This is just crypto people. And I think it's the smart money, basically, that's come in."

With retail investors yet to fully enter the market and institutional recognition growing, Solana appears poised for continued growth and innovation in the coming months and years.

Facts + Figures

• Bonk, a Solana-based meme coin, has reached a market cap of about 800 million dollars.
• Dog Dog with Hat, another Solana meme coin, has a market cap of 400 million dollars.
• Myro, a Solana-based meme coin, has reached a market cap of 200 million dollars.
• The Saga phone initially struggled with sales but sold out quickly after the Bonk airdrop value exceeded the phone's price.
• In 9 days, a user made about $9 worth of mobile tokens using Helium on the Saga phone.
• The Jupiter airdrop is estimated to be worth over 4 billion dollars, potentially making it the largest airdrop in crypto history.
• Current daily NFT trading volume on Solana is about 100,000 SOL or $10 million.
• The Jupiter airdrop is expected to inject around a billion dollars into the Solana ecosystem.
• In the last week, 130 people traded over a million dollars in weekly volume on Jupiter.
• 1,500 people traded between 100k to 1 million dollars on Jupiter in a week.
• 50,000 people traded between 10k to 100k on Jupiter in a week.
• 20% of all users on Jupiter are doing more than $1,000 in trading volume.
• Solana (SOL) has increased 12x from its bottom price in the past year.
• Some Solana-based meme coins have seen 100x returns.
• The hosts speculate that Jupiter tokens could reach a fully diluted valuation of 10-20 billion dollars.

Questions Answered

What is driving the current meme coin mania on Solana?

The meme coin mania on Solana is being driven by low transaction costs and high throughput, allowing for easy creation and trading of tokens. This has led to a surge in popularity for coins like Bonk, Dog Dog with Hat, and Myro, which have reached market caps in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The trend is also fueled by people's desire to engage with pop culture and current events through these meme coins.

How has the Saga phone impacted the Solana ecosystem?

The Saga phone has become a significant player in the Solana ecosystem by offering a secure hardware wallet built into a smartphone. Initially struggling with sales, it gained popularity after the Bonk airdrop value exceeded the phone's price. This has led to increased app development for the device and a new wave of strategies centered around the Saga phone, including exclusive airdrops for Saga users.

What is the expected impact of the Jupiter airdrop on Solana?

The Jupiter airdrop is anticipated to have a massive impact on the Solana ecosystem. Estimated to be worth over 4 billion dollars, it could potentially be the largest airdrop in crypto history. This is expected to drive significant trading volume on Solana for years to come, boosting liquidity and potentially increasing the value of SPL tokens, meme coins, and NFTs in the ecosystem.

How has trading volume on Jupiter changed recently?

Trading volume on Jupiter has seen a dramatic increase, particularly among high-value traders. In a recent week, 130 people traded over a million dollars in volume, 1,500 traded between 100k to 1 million, and 50,000 traded between 10k to 100k. This represents a significant shift from just a few months ago when only 5,000 people were using the platform in total.

What are "points" in DeFi protocols and why are they important?

Points in DeFi protocols are a way to separate social capital from financial capital within ecosystems. They represent a user's reputation and contribution to a platform, allowing protocols to reward good contributors more effectively. Points systems are evolving to include features like decay mechanisms to encourage continued engagement. They're seen as a potential solution to issues with previous token distribution methods and a way to align incentives between users and protocols.

How is Helium mobile integration benefiting Saga phone users?

Helium mobile integration is providing Saga phone users with the ability to earn mobile tokens through normal phone usage. In one example, a user earned about $9 worth of tokens in 9 days, which could potentially cover the cost of the mobile plan. This model of earning while using a mobile service could be a game-changer in the telecom industry and adds significant value to the Saga phone offering.

What factors are contributing to Solana's recent growth?

Several factors are driving Solana's growth, including the rise in value of SOL (up 12x from its bottom), significant returns on SPL tokens and meme coins (some up to 100x), and the attraction of potential airdrops drawing liquidity into the ecosystem. The increase in high-value trading on platforms like Jupiter and institutional recognition from entities like Franklin Templeton are also contributing to Solana's prominence in the crypto space.

How might this bull market differ from previous ones in crypto?

The hosts suggest that this bull market could be significantly different from previous ones. Traditional top signals may not apply, and the scale of growth could far exceed past cycles. They argue that what were previously considered top signals are now becoming baselines, and the real peaks could be much higher. The entry of retail investors, which hasn't fully happened yet, could further amplify this effect.

What challenges do borrowing and lending protocols face in their early stages?

Borrowing and lending protocols face unique challenges in their early stages, particularly in establishing initial liquidity. At the start, there's often no yield because there's no demand without supply. To overcome this, protocols often need to incentivize early supply by promising future airdrops or other rewards. This creates a delicate balance between attracting early adopters and ensuring long-term sustainability for the protocol.

How is the Solana ecosystem positioned for future growth?

The Solana ecosystem appears well-positioned for future growth due to a combination of factors. These include innovative technologies like the Saga phone, a thriving meme coin ecosystem, major events like the Jupiter airdrop, and increasing institutional recognition. With retail investors yet to fully enter the market and a growing track record of successful projects, Solana seems poised for continued expansion and innovation in the coming months and years.