Late 2022 and early 2023 were extremely painful for the Solana network. Several joint projects with the bankrupt FTX crypto exchange left SOL an autumn loss leader, while the media dubbed the currency "Samcoins" after FTX's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. In February 2023, the network experienced another technical issue that took it offline for 19 hours.

These events led to a new way of criticism, and a host of projects have completely migrated to other blockchains. Of particular note are DeGods and Y00ts, which were responsible for the most popular collections on Solana at the time.

Of course, Solana had a run-in with the SEC, too. In its complaints against crypto exchanges, the US regulator labelled SOL a security, which resulted in another wave of sell-offs in June and several platforms delisting the coin.

However, it's too early to write off the network completely. Its developers are continuing to work to optimise it and increase adoption. Since the outage in February noted above, Solana has worked without any technical shutdowns, and yesterday, news emerged that Solana Pay is being included on Shopify.

Shopify is focused on optimising e-commerce by providing the tools to build a complete online store. According to the company's statement, the platform accounts for 10% of US e-commerce. When combined with its international network, its annual turnover is over $400 billion.

Solana Pay adds cryptocurrencies to the list of traditional payment methods already on offer. When it comes to conducting operations, its network is one of the fastest (transactions are completed in several seconds) and one of the cheapest (less than $0.01).

During the first stage of integration on Shopify, the only crypto asset that will be available is the USDC stablecoin, which US regulators have not complained about. According to Josh Fried, the Solana Foundation's Director of Business Development and Partnerships, even at this stage, users will save between 1.5% and 3.5%. Future plans envision adding SOL and various incentive mechanisms.

Solana also plans to build on its success by reaching partnership agreements with other e-commerce platforms, including WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, Wix and Squarespace.

If Solana doesn't make any missteps, its partnership with Shopify will serve as a great start for growing the network and coin in the future. However, potential investors should consider the risk of increased regulatory pressure, as well as the remaining 35 million SOL (~$770 million) on FTX's balance sheet. At the end of legal proceedings against FTX, the coins will be sold to compensate investors' losses.

StormGain Analytical Group
(platform for trading, exchanging and storing cryptocurrency)