Author: Wu Hai, PANews

Under the backdrop of FTX's restart and the resurgence of Solana's popularity, the upcoming cryptocurrency exchange Backpack Exchange has been the subject of much discussion within the community. In addition to team members from former FTX executives, the launch of a new token tied to Solana's SOL has attracted a large number of airdrop hunters. In this article, PANews will provide a detailed explanation of Backpack's background and current status, as well as the recent developments and ecosystem of Solana.

Why is Backpack Exchange highly anticipated?

Backpack Exchange is a cryptocurrency exchange founded by former FTX executives.

In September 2022, Coral, the developer of the Solana development framework Anchor, announced the completion of a $20 million financing round, with FTX Ventures and Jump Crypto leading the investment, and other strategic investors such as Multicoin Capital participating. The company then launched its flagship product, Backpack, an interactive wallet product that provides a native crypto experience.

In October 2023, Backpack announced the launch of a "regulated" exchange, Backpack Exchange, and obtained a VASP license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. This marked Backpack Exchange's first entry into the community's view. According to The Wall Street Journal, former FTX general counsel Can Sun and former Alameda Research software developer Armani Ferrante launched Backpack Exchange in Dubai.

It is worth mentioning that Trek Labs, co-founded by Can Sun and Armani Ferrante, obtained a license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and has now been incorporated into Backpack.

According to reports, Backpack Exchange's business model will be different from FTX, as its technology will allow users to self-custody their funds, meaning that no one else besides the users can access their crypto wallets.

Furthermore, the NFT project Mad Lads previously launched by Backpack saw a total trading volume of 2 million SOL tokens on four major trading platforms including Magic Eden and Tensor, equivalent to $126 million. The trading volume briefly ranked first across the entire network, indicating a significant user base.

Launching PYTH token airdrop, staking SOL required for participation

Against this backdrop, the community has recently begun spreading rumors that Backpack Exchange will launch staking airdrops and new token offerings after its official launch. The combination of a new exchange with rumors about staking airdrops and new token offerings, along with the community's fear of missing out and the enthusiasm of the new project's community, has made it difficult for the community to ignore.

Then, on the evening of November 16, Backpack announced on social media that it would collaborate with the oracle project Pyth Network to launch the PYTH token airdrop. The rules require users to register a Backpack Exchange account and complete the real-name authentication process, then purchase or deposit at least 5 SOL tokens into their personal Backpack account and stake them for at least 24 hours.

Staking will begin at 23:00 on November 18, 2023, Beijing time, and users must stake their tokens before 19:59 on November 19, 2023, to be eligible to participate. Users will receive a corresponding proportion of PYTH tokens based on their individual trading volume on the Backpack platform, up to their maximum allocation.

This announcement also confirmed that part of the community rumors were true.

Product not fully open yet, but 90,000 users have already signed up

The current products of the Backpack platform are not fully open to the public, and users can only go through the authentication process. Upon entering the Backpack official website, users can register and verify using their email, and then choose to authenticate either a personal or business account. Currently, domestic users can complete the authentication process using their passports. The process and information required are consistent with other exchanges.

Due to reasons such as an excessive number of registered users and the incomplete level of product development, there may be issues at this stage, such as being unable to log in even with the correct password, and not receiving verification codes via email.

According to official information, as of November 13, 90,000 users have signed up on the waiting list.

Backpack's momentum and Solana's ecosystem revival

For the recently launched new exchange Backpack, tying itself to the obvious resurgence of Solana will undoubtedly play a significant role in quickly opening up the market.

The recent price performance of Solana's token SOL is undoubtedly the most eye-catching in the secondary market. From the community's widespread belief that Solana had become a thing of the past due to FTX's collapse, to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's social media post stating that Solana's chain has a bright future, to rumors within the community that the SOL token has changed to a new market maker, and now to the community forgetting how it once viewed Solana with skepticism and beginning to embrace the idea that Solana will surpass Ethereum.

Setting aside the price-driven changes in community sentiment, Solana's development can be traced back to tangible factors. From a purely fundamental perspective, Solana has partnerships that most public chains cannot match, such as Solana Pay integrating with the e-commerce platform Shopify for payment settlement; Visa implementing stablecoin payments on the Solana chain; and the founder of MakerDAO stating that Solana's stack is the "Endgame" codebase most likely to be adopted in the final stage of NewChain.

At the same time, Solana's ecosystem development is also steadily progressing, including the launch of a Web3 phone based on the Solana chain, NEON, and the Eclipse new public chain becoming a member of the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM); Solana's official hosting of several hackathons with million-dollar prize pools and the launch of an entrepreneurial incubator. In addition, Solana's TVL has steadily climbed from a valley of nearly $2 billion in value after peaking at nearly $10 billion, to the current $600 million.

Driven by both fundamental factors and price performance, the Solana ecosystem is seeing a growing number of active projects. For example, the distributed rendering network Render Network announced its launch on Solana, introducing the new SPL token RENDER; and the Solana-based trading aggregator Jupiter Exchange recently announced detailed information about the airdrop of its token JUP to the community, and so on.

Over the past year, Solana has steadily climbed from its low point, and its ecosystem is gradually recovering. Although it is still far from its peak, the increased attention from the community is attracting new projects and products, presenting investment opportunities. Over time, this will create a positive cycle for the community and protocols.

Conclusion

As with the expectations for the development of new platforms in the past, it is not ruled out that Backpack will attract users through the wealth effect. However, as users actively participate and discover potential investment opportunities, they should also control risks and lower their expectations.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。