Is Solana's #7 ranking really justified? Looking at the numbers, its market cap sits around 5 times lower than Ethereum. Makes you wonder if the ranking truly reflects its actual market position or if there's something else at play. The gap between SOL and ETH is pretty significant when you drill down into the data.

SOL's recent performance has indeed attracted a lot of attention. Looking at market sentiment, investors are optimistic about this project both in the short term and in its long-term potential. Many people's opinions point to the same conclusion: SOL can not only perform well in the current market but is also regarded by many as a core allocation in the next bull market. Behind this consensus, it indicates that the market still has confidence in SOL's fundamentals and development prospects. What exactly is driving this bullish momentum? Perhaps it is related to the activity level of the SOL ecosystem, progress in technological upgrades, and the expansion of applications in DeFi and NFT sectors. Of course, market sentiment always carries uncertainties, and investment decisions still require thorough research.

SIONG, the co-founder of Jupiter, recently posed a thought-provoking question: Last year, over $70 million was spent on JUP buybacks, yet the price did not experience the expected increase. Instead of continuing to spend money on buybacks, could reallocating these funds toward user growth incentives and community building more directly drive ecosystem development? Once this suggestion was made, another major player in the Solana ecosystem also expressed their opinion. They pointed out an interesting phenomenon — in traditional finance, establishing a capital reserve pool typically requires an investment cycle of over 10 years. If the crypto ecosystem adopts a similar long-term capital accumulation model, it might be more reliable than rushing into buybacks. Their alternative proposal is to introduce a staking mechanism. By incentivizing users to lock up tokens long-term, capital can be accumulated, which not only locks in holder participation but also lays the foundation for future asset profits for the protocol. The benefit of this approach is the creation of a virtuous cycle — users earn rewards through staking and are willing to hold tokens long-term, while the project can also maintain a more stable capital base. From a certain perspective, this discussion reflects a new exploration in tokenomics design by DeFi project teams. Pure buyback and token burning have long seemed somewhat crude; how to use incentive mechanisms and long-term anchoring to maintain token value and ecosystem vitality is becoming a key consideration for many teams. This is especially relevant for community members interested in Solana ecosystem developments and seeking new investment ideas, and it’s worth pondering more deeply.