Recently, Moonrock Capital, a blockchain consulting firm, purchased one of the Degenerate Ape Academy NFTs for 5,980 SOL ($1.1 million) on Saturday, making it the first million-dollar NFT sale on the Solana blockchain.
Moonrock bought Degen Ape #7225, which is a scarred zombie ape with a halo, a gold tooth, and a brain in its mouth. According to HowRare.is, the ape is the 13th rarest in the collection. The company also paid 1,388 SOL ($260,000) for the 18th rarest SolPunk, a Solana-themed variant of CryptoPunks.
SOL is now the sixth most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization of over $52 Billion, and as the cost of Ethereum gas forces certain enterprises to search for alternatives, Solana may become a more desirable option. Solana’s growth is expected to accelerate in the coming months, thanks to its scalability, faster transaction speeds, and lower gas rates, which allow anyone to buy, list, sell, or trade NFTs without having to worry about exorbitant gas fees.
Because Solana combines Proof of History with Proof of Stake, there is no latency in block generation, making the blockchain extremely quick and decentralized. Proof of History is based on a timestamping approach. Each transaction is assigned a timestamp that allows the rest of the network to verify it as a legitimate transaction in fractions of a second.
Although Ethereum’s network suffers from higher congestion and higher gas fees even with layer 2 solutions, most NFT-related transactions are conducted on Ethereum — something which may change soon owing to Solana’s promising features. According to data gathered by EtherScan, Ethereum’s gas expenses hit their highest point since May last week. This means more entry barriers, forcing people to seek better options like Solana.
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Last month, SOL shocked the crypto market with its dramatic spike in its value, tripling from $36 to more than $100 in August alone. A surge in investor interest in Ethereum’s competing systems with DeFi, NFT, and smart contract capabilities is one of the primary causes driving this amazing success. In fact, it was boosted by the introduction of the NFT Degenerate Ape Academy on the Solana blockchain on August 15.
As you can see, this group of apes had a wide variety of features, each with a unique avatar. Some NFTs, for example, are wearing sunglasses while others are chewing on currency notes and sandwiches. Despite technical difficulties caused by tremendous demand, the 10,000-piece collection sold out in 8 minutes. What makes Moonrock’s Degen Ape #7225 million dollar NFT purchase, a milestone, is that Solana reached this million dollar sale goal in two months. In comparison, Ethereum, the most popular and widely used network for NFTs, took three years to reach its first million-dollar sale.
Meanwhile, the fact that Solana’s DeFi projects recently surpassed the $3 billion mark is proof of Solana’s promise and ability to compete with Ethereum.
Solana NFTs have already piqued the interest of celebrities. For instance, last Thursday, Family Feud host Steve Harvey changed his Twitter profile photo to a Solana Monkey Business NFT, which is another NFT project on the blockchain featuring a set of 5,000 randomly-generated images of animated and pixelated monkeys.
As the demand for Solana NFTs goes mainstream, NFT projects like Degenerate Ape Academy, Aurory, SolPunks, Sollamas, and Frakt will continue pushing its market to new heights.
