‘Ripped off the bandaid’—Solana’s cofounders talk SBF, FTX, and what’s next

Bankman-Fried Solana missed and its ecosystem constantly over the years, both personally and through FTX. The bankruptcy exchange held $982 million of SOL, according to its balance.

Bankman-Fried even created a “decentralized” exchange called Serum in Solana.

Although Serum has recently been separated from Bankman-Fried’s influence and name, and projects within the Solana ecosystem continue to build through the downturn, its token price has taken a hit. In the last 30 days, Solana’s SOL low 61%which is currently trading around $14-94% below its November 2021 all-time high.

In addition, the developer’s commitments are less than 50% last month, and active developers decreased by the same amount, Messari senior research analyst Tom Dunleavy pointed out luck. “This is the highest drop-off among the Layer-1 majors,” he said. (Accordingly at Gokustatswhich tracks developer activity, a commit is “the smallest unit of work for developers…it’s often a good proxy for developer productivity.”)

But the cofounders of Solana Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal are not focused on the price of SOL and see the new failures as temporary. They see chaos as a necessary part of a clearing process that is essential to sustainability.

“I think in the long term, it’s very good,” Gokal said luck. “We have always heard negative criticism about FTX’s involvement in the ecosystem and that concentration of ownership stake. So, it’s like the bandaid is torn.”

‘He didn’t answer’

Gokal and Yakovenko learned about the details of the FTX scandal—which involved Bankman-Fried stealing customer funds to prop up his hedge fund—at the same time as everyone else, they said. Gokal said he tried to contact Bankman-Fried recently, but it led nowhere.

“I think I asked him if he had an update on how Solana would be affected by all of this, and he didn’t answer, or I think his answer was ‘I’m not sure,'” Gokal said.

Otherwise, Gokal and Yakovenko say they never heard from Bankman-Fried.

After the collapse of FTX, “I was just shocked. It’s rare, it’s strange to reconcile what happened,” said Yakovenko.

FTX worked closely with the Solana team once Bankman-Fried decided to develop Solana Serum, Yakovenko recalls. But as FTX grew larger as a centralized exchange, Bankman-Fried and the team “started to focus on their brand and expanding globally, the US and DC stuff,” and there was “definitely shifting focus,” Yakovenko explained. “This distancing happened naturally as their interest went elsewhere.”

Gokal recalls that the gap formed when the NFT rollout began in Solana last year.

“There are very different approaches to FTX. They want to partner with celebrities and do custodial NFT exchange stuff,” Gokal said. “Our approach is on-chain, solving the problems of creators like of royalty splits and allowing anyone to launch their own auctions on-chain.”

Looking ahead, Gokal and Yakovenko are not worried about FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings and potential SOL liquidation.

“The amount of stake that FTX holds in these processes has no impact on the security of the network,” said Yakovenko. “In general, the size of their stake is not significant enough for it to be an issue.”

Gokal added that any rumor online that Solana is “dead” is just “fud”, or spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

“These are the bumps in the road that are likely to come for any ecosystem at this stage, especially at this stage of the market cycle,” Gokal said. “But I think [the road bumps are] general strengthening, and they are more than what any concentration of ownership can bring to an actor.

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