Founded in 2020 by ex-Qualcomm executives, Solana unfurled its blockchain to the public earlier in 2021. Like others contending for Ethereum's crown, Solana also offers a swifter and more robust alternative. Its rising popularity led the Solana token to soar in value and received a huge $314 million in funding from investors including Polychain Capital, a crypto hedge fund. Solana’s network allows for a theoretical throughput of 65,000 transactions per second, which is much higher than Bitcoin’s seven transactions per second and Ethereum’s 15 transactions per second, and transactions cost a fraction of the price of other blockchains, averaging at $0.00025, according to blockworks.co.