Solana, a decentralized finance project that aims to provide an alternative to the Ethereum blockchain, is seeing the value of its token rise significantly thanks to new activity on the network. The exchange price of SOL has climbed by more than 50% over the last couple of weeks, and this can be explained by the increase in token airdrops by nascent projects.

Airdrops are token deposited into the digital wallets of unsuspected digital currency holders; even though they are somewhat controversial, they are also considered to be a more kosher alternative to initial coin offerings. Depending on how the market responds, airdrops can turn into substantial profits that feel like free beer to those lucky enough to exchange them at the right time. The Solana blockchain provides efficient airdrop functionality, and developers have been taking advantage of it recently.

The development team behind the COPE digital currency has chosen Solana for its blockchain, and its first airdrop of 2,000 tokens was targeted to hit the wallets of those who participated in a hackathon event sponsored by Solana. The smooth airdrop allowed token recipients to trade their tokens on the spot, and the resulting trade volume boosted the value of COPE. Impressed by the versatility of the Solana network, other development teams have been launching and dropping new tokens into predetermined wallets, all the while attracting the attention of cryptocurrency investors who are now interested in the SOL token.

Every new and successful blockchain project launched on the Solana network has the potential of boosting the value of SOL; this is entirely by design because SOL is an intermediary token that serves as a gateway to established exchanges. More importantly, the efficiency of SOL transactions is being watched by developers who wish to take a break from the high transaction fees being charged by the Ethereum network. It is unclear whether the ETH core development team will be able to lower these fees in the future. In the meantime, however, Solana is not the only blockchain project that is giving Ethereum a run for its money; in fact, this is what most DeFi projects have been actively aiming for.