The price of Solana has risen from about $ 37 a month ago to nearly $ 197 today, according to CoinGecko, making it one of the hottest cryptocurrencies recently. The trend can be attributed to increased network activity, and even comedian and television host Steve Harvey is getting in on the “Solana Summer” hype.
He changed his profile picture on Twitter today to that of a Solana Monkey Business image, a collection of 5,000 randomly-generated cartoon images of pixelated monkeys. Almost any kind of digital item can be legally transferred using an NFT, and popular profile picture collections like CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club have seen unprecedented popularity in recent months.
The most active NFT collectible platform is Ethereum, which powers CryptoPunks and Bored Apes alike. During August alone, the leading marketplace OpenSea recorded NFT trading volumes of over $3.4 billion on Ethereum. Most of the projects running on Ethereum are among the top-trading NFT projects.
However, Solana is beginning to take a stand. It operates much more efficiently than Ethereum’s current network, and it can handle much more transactions without requiring as much energy.
Solana NFTs were not even mentioned among collectors a few weeks ago-but now they are attracting buyers and driving demand.
In the wake of recent drops like Degenerate Ape Academy and Aurory, Solana Monkey Business is one of the latest NFT collections to release on the platform. It’s been credited that both of those collections boosted activity on the platform, and the drops also occurred about the same time that Solana’s SOL coin’s price rose.
Solana’s trade volume for NFT collectibles has exceeded $94 million in the past week, according to data from Solanalysis. In terms of volume, Solana Monkey Business is third on the list, behind two projects, with a seven-day volume of $6.2 million. KSI, a rapper and YouTube personality interested in cryptocurrency, changed his Twitter avatar today to that of a Solana Monkey Business NFT.
Harvey did not tweet about his decision to change his profile picture to a Monkey Business NFT.
Taking part in the crypto world, or dealing with NFTs, is not Harvey’s first foray. Harvey sold not-for-profit tokens to benefit his own nonprofit, the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation, through NFT marketplace Rarible in May.
In an interview, Harvey said he owned both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Does the Family Feud host seem to be carrying bags of Solana as well?