Coinbase wallet adds support for Solana

Top US crypto exchange Coinbase has added wallet support for Solana (SOL) and its ecosystem of Solana tokens (SPL).

Coinbase cited the surging interest in Solana over the past 12 months as investors look for low-cost alternatives to Ethereum as a key reason behind adding support to the network.

The expanded wallet support comes just a few days after the firm launched Coinbase Pay, which enables users to fund their wallets directly via a web browser extension.

In a March 18 blog post announcing the move, the firm also loosely outlined plans to “further integrate” with Solana by connecting the Coinbase Wallet with decentralized applications (dApps) and NFTs hosted on the network, which is famously championed by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

Users of Solana-based wallets such as Phantom and Solflare can now import their existing wallets into the Coinbase Wallet via a desktop browser extension as well.

Following the addition of the Solana network, the Coinbase Wallet now supports Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, BNB Chain, Bitcoin, Dogecoin Litecoin, Stellar Lumens and the Ripple network. Coinbase said:

“Many users have been looking for networks that are optimized for scale, offering low-cost transactions and fast transaction times. One of the fastest-growing blockchains over the past year has been Solana."

According to data from Defi Llama, the Solana blockchain is currently ranked fifth in terms of total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols at $6.94 billion. NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam ranked it as the second-highest blockchain for secondary sales volume last month at $156.28 million.

Much like the majority of the crypto market which has had a torrid performance this year, the price of SOL is down 18% over the past 30 days to sit at $85.90 at the time of writing. In the short term, Cointelegraph's Rakesh Upadhyay has identified a bullish target of $122 for SOL if the price breaks above the 20 day moving average of $86, or the bearish figure of $66 if the market fails to support and hold above that zone.