Solana-Based Lender Save Marks 3rd Anniversary With 76% Price Surge

Save (formerly Solend), a Solana-based DeFi lending platform marks its third anniversary today. According to its founder, under the pseudonym Rooter, the project saw the most challenges from Solana’s cataclysmic fall in late 2022 and its periodic outages. Within the past year, Save’s native token has soared by 76%.

today is the 3 year anniversary of save launching on solana! 🎉

here are some reflections on the crazy journey it has been.

1/12 pic.twitter.com/NQ6fEcOll7

— R🐽ter (@0xrooter) August 13, 2024

Save operates as a decentralized lending and borrowing project on the Solana blockchain. Users can also earn interest on deposited crypto. With a total value locked (TVL) of $275 million, the project ranks among the leading Solana DeFi projects.

Save Protocol Becomes Three

Save’s origins date back to June 2021. Under its previous name, Solend, the project won the Solana Season Hackathon and received a $20,000 reward to aid its growth to mainnet in August. Months later, the protocol secured $6.5 million from venture firms to gather a team and bolster its operations on Solana mainnet.

The DeFi project’s popularity skyrocketed, taking the TVL to $1 billion in November 2021, when SOL peaked above $250.

Still, Save has had its challenges. In November 2022, it suffered a $1.26 million hack, and one of its backers, Alameda Research, crashed that same month. The crash triggered a significant downtrend for the Solana ecosystem. Solana’s SOL tanked below $9, a hurdle Rooter regards as the project’s “biggest stress test to date.”

Rooter added that Save has experienced “many incidents” due to Solana’s periodic network outages. Summing up all the difficulties, the project’s founder stated:

“Save is responsible for both the most stressful and fulfilling times of my life.”

Despite these difficulties, the DeFi lending protocol has expanded its ecosystem. Last month, Save rebranded to its current name and added new tokens to its ecosystem. Recall that Save has a sister DeFi lender on the Sui network called Suilend.

SLND Soars 76%

A year ago, Save’s native token, SLND, sold for $0.61. Fast-forward to the present, and SLND’s price is over $1.08, signifying a 76% surge.

Source: CoinStats