Solana, Avax, Helium: Reviewing This Year's Crypto Leaders & Future Prospects

• Solana (SOL) Takes the Lead in 2023 Token Price Gains
• Significant Year for Solana
• Helium's (HNT) Impressive Gains
• Boost for Avalanche (AVAX)
• Strong Year for Bitcoin
• Impressive Returns for Stacks (STX)
• Expectations for 2024

Solana (SOL) Takes the Lead in 2023 Token Price Gains

In 2023, Solana$104 5.03% (SOL) carved its path in token price increases, leading the pack, with other altcoins like Avalanche (AVAX), Stacks (STX), and Helium$6.74 6.56% (HNT) not far behind. These increases in digital assets occurred as bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market value, also experienced a robust year. This was largely due to increasing optimism that spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) will gain approval early in the new year.

Significant Year for Solana

Solana initiated its substantial upswing in mid-October and has since seen over 700% growth since the beginning of the year. This rally remains unscathed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's classification of the token, along with other cryptocurrencies, as unregistered securities in a complaint against cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in June.

Despite its association with the failed exchange FTX$3.28 -5.38% and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, whose trial concluded in November, Solana performed exceptionally. Bankman-Fried, a significant supporter of Solana, procured over $1 billion in tokens through his firms, Alameda Research, and FTX.

Most of SOL's gains occurred after the trial concluded. Since then, the network has seen growth in monthly active addresses and the introduction of several memecoins, including BONK, which was recently listed on the crypto exchange Coinbase.

Solana's survival was questioned following the collapse of FTX, but it has thrived with increasing activity on the chain, new-found respect for its innovative technology, and multiple high-profile airdrops, stated Brian Rudick, a senior strategist at GSR.

Helium's (HNT) Impressive Gains

Helium's HNT also noted considerable gains in 2023, mostly in December, after the company's venture into the mobile sector. Helium transitioned to Solana in April from its blockchain. Helium functions as a blockchain-based network for Internet of Things devices using nodes as hotspots to connect wireless devices to the network.

Christopher Martin, director of research at Amberdata, states that 2023 was an important year for Helium because of its leap into the mobile sector. In addition, the recent fascination with BONK has caused the Solana Saga phone to sell out as these phones include a BONK claim.

Boost for Avalanche (AVAX)

Avalanche benefited from a number of institutional partnerships that helped elevate the token. AVAX has increased by 300% since the start of the year. Avalanche announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services in January and participated in J.P. Morgan and Apollo Global's blockchain platform, Onyx's proof-of-concept project, in November.

Chris Newhouse, a former derivatives trader and founder of Infiniti Labs, stated that the Avalanche rally this year was heavily influenced by news trading. He added that Avalanche had made significant strides with institutional partnerships, associating themselves with Apollo and JP Morgan, as well as a previous AWS partnership established at the start of the year.

Strong Year for Bitcoin

Bitcoin$42,260 -0.64% also had a robust year in terms of price action, largely due to the enthusiasm surrounding a potential spot bitcoin ETF. The cryptocurrency has seen a 164% increase year-to-date. Rudick stated that the ETF hype was the primary catalyst, but a supportive macroeconomic environment also contributed.

Impressive Returns for Stacks (STX)

Stacks (STX), the native token of the Stacks Network, rose by 623% over the year. The token surged in March amid booming hype for Bitcoin Ordinals, a method to inscribe data to the Bitcoin blockchain, and the growing total value locked (TVL) on the protocol.

Stacks Network's TVL has also surged over the year, rising to $50 million from $6 million in January, according to data from DeFiLlama.

Expectations for 2024

Rudick anticipates that bitcoin and ether (ETH) will continue their rally in the new year, driven, in part, by probable approvals of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. Furthermore, real-world assets are expected to be the booming segment to watch.

Newhouse predicts the Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) narrative to continue to trend, with tokens such as RNDR and HNT recently outperforming the market. DePINs use

Edited by Jonathan Stoker