Roswell, New Mexico, has made history by becoming the first city in the United States to adopt Bitcoin as part of its strategic financial reserves. This move marks a bold step toward integrating digital assets into public finance. By holding Bitcoin, the city aims to diversify its treasury and position itself for long-term financial strength. Roswell’s decision reflects growing interest in Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and a modern store of value for municipalities.
In comparison, Ethereum (ETH)generated 46.28 million in fees in February, with 7.49 million as of March 7. While these numbers suggest Solana is ahead, Michael Nadeau, the founder of The DeFi Report, claims this comparison may be misleading.
Although Nadeau acknowledges Solana’s impressive growth, he cautions that it might be less organic than it seems.
“But if you look under the hood, it looks like a house of cards,” he wrote.
According to Nadeau, over the past 30 days, 17.31% of addresses have contributed to 95% of the total fees generated on Ethereum. For Solana, the figure is strikingly small, only 1.26%.
Nadeau added that Wintermute, a prominent market-making firm, is the primary driver behind this fee generation. The rest of the fee is attributed to bots.
He claimed that these wallets drive the network’s activity through practices such as sandwich attacks and pumping meme coins. This often comes at the expense of retail investors.
For context, a sandwich attack is a front-running strategy in which an attacker exploits large trades. The attacker buys the asset before the large trade, anticipating a price increase, and sells afterward, profiting from the price movement while negatively impacting the original trader.
Nadeau cautioned that the reliance on a small subset of users for fee generation creates vulnerabilities. If retail traders become aware of the extent of bot-driven manipulation, they may withdraw from the ecosystem. This, in turn, could significantly impact Solana’s revenue projections.
“Nothing against Solana. Massive comeback story. But my sense tells me another period of “chewing glass” is yet to come,” he concluded.
Solana’s speed and cost efficiency have made it a favorite among developers and traders. However, this concentration of fees has raised concerns among market analysts.
“When 95% of fees come from 1.26% of users, it’s less “decentralized finance” and more “exclusive finance,” Superchargd co-founder wrote on X.
Another user also warned that Solana may not thrive well as the industry matures and free market forces fully take effect.
“Solana doesn’t have a future; it’s a Ponzi scheme designed for grifting,” he said.
“Solana is a complete house of cards built on wash trading bots and centralized control,” a user remarked.
He also emphasized that validators profiting from failed transactions and the rise of Solana meme coins have harmed the space.
The criticism comes just after financial giant Franklin Templeton predicted in a report that Solana’s DeFi ecosystem could rival—and even surpass—Ethereum’s market valuation. The firm highlighted Solana’s scalability, low fees, and surging user activity as key factors driving its potential.
Amid the mounting criticism, Solana faces a pivotal moment. While its technological advancements and cost-efficiency have earned it a loyal following, its centralized fee-generation model and reliance on market manipulation tactics could pose significant risks to its future. How Solana adapts to these concerns will determine whether it can sustain its growth or struggle to maintain relevance.
21Shares has announced that it is bringing down the curtain on its Bitcoin and Ethereum futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The issuer is eyeing March 28 as a tentative date for the liquidation of both ETFs amid a wave of new filings in the US.
21Shares Set To Liquidate Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs
According to an announcement, crypto ETF issuer 21Shares has disclosed plans to ditch its Bitcoin and Ethereum futures ETFs. Per the announcement, the affected ETFs are the ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Ethereum Strategy ETF and the ARK 21Shares Active On-Chain Bitcoin Strategy ETF.
While the press release did not give clear reasons for the liquidations, it hinged its decision on a periodic review of its offerings. The statement cited a need to align existing product lineups with market dynamics and clients’ needs in a changing landscape.
However, pundits say the liquidations are a result of jarring ETF outflows in recent months.
Shareholders can sell their holdings up until March 27, a date touted as the last trading day for both ETFs. 21Shares plans to put the final nail in the coffin for both ETFs on March 28, liquidating all remaining assets.
“Shareholders who continue to hold shares of a Fund on the Fund’s Liquidation Date will receive a liquidating distribution with a value equal to their proportionate ownership interest in the Fund,” read the press release.
Increased ETF Activity In The Cryptoverse
Despite the wave of outflows, the ETF space is sizzling with frenetic activity. Buoyed by impressive returns, 21Shares slashed fees to 0.49% for its Bitcoin Ethereum Core ETPs.
Bitwise has rolled out its OWNB ETF to track companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Bitcoin ETF investors continue to put their faith in offerings in the face of price amid Rex Shares launching the first Bitcoin Corporate Bond Convertible ETF
Outside of Bitcoin, several issuers have filed for XRP, HBAR, DOGE, and AVAX ETFs with the US SEC. For Ethereum investors, CBOE has applied to the SEC to approve staking in Fidelity’s ETH ETF.
Solana developers are pushing for new frontiers in the ecosystem with the launch of the Confidential Balances Token Extension. Now live on the mainnet, the developers described Confidential Balances as the “first ZK-powered encrypted token standard built for institutional compliance.” Using this technology will come without a need to sacrifice the sub-second finality that Solana is known for.
Solana Confidential Balances: the Core Use Case
The Solana Confidential Balances solution is designed for developers and helps amplify privacy configurations. It is a set of three token extensions that integrate privacy in Encrypted balances and transfers, mint/burn operations with a discrete total supply, and discrete fee handling.
Solana developers who want to implement this solution can currently gain implementation for three basic settings. As revealed, these include Server-side Rust backends, WaaS integrations for custodial solutions, and Decentralized Applications (DApps) with trusted confidential token handling.
As a protocol building for enterprise adoption, the developers said this solution is useful for encrypted payroll systems. In addition, Confidential Balances can help secure B2B payment transfers, privacy-preserving wallets, and consumer dApps on Solana.
This solution is one of the latest releases from the Solana developers this year, cementing its role in boosting Web3 innovations.
Solana Rebranding Effort: PumpFun Reference
Over the past year, the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network has recorded ups and downs amid a massive adoption trend. This massive adoption also triggered challenges of outages and general misuse of its products.
As the dominant hub for memecoins over the past few months, PumpFun, the ecosystem’s top meme launchpad, recorded a drop in engagement. This follows an extreme tactic users deploy to draw attention to their launched tokens via its livestream feature.
The backlash fueled its suspension in countries like the United Kingdom, forcing the launchpad to halt the feature five months ago. With the rebranding effort, PumpFun relaunched the livestream feature. This has further repositioned Solana as a hub with new products to watch out for.
SOL Price Amid Market Rout
The price of Solana is also in the spotlight in the altcoin world amid the global market rout. At the time of writing, the coin was changing hands for $103.47, down by 1.44% in 24 hours.
An earlier SOL price analysis made a projection on whether Solana can fuel the next altcoin rally. However, despite jumping as high as $112.29 in the past 24 hours, the coin is yet to pare off the more than 18% loss it accrued in the past week.
Amid the volatility, the coin remains bound to general financial market trends even though ecosystem developments can boost sentiment in the long term.
