DeGods becomes the latest NFT project to migrate from Solana

DeGods, one of the largest non-fungible token (NFT) projects on Solana, has announced that it will be migrating to the Ethereum blockchain during the first quarter of 2023. DeGods joins the list of decentralized applications (DApps) moving out of the Solana ecosystem, resulting in a notable decline in the Solana total value locked (TVL).

DeGods to migrate from Solana to Ethereum

DeGods confirmed its migration from Solana to Ethereum on Twitter. The team noted that it was working on bridging to Ethereum in Q1 2023, adding that it would ensure that the bridge was as efficient and effective as it was meant to be.

“The details of the bridge will be released when it’s ready & tested. This has never been done before at this scale. We want to make sure that it’s airtight. In the meantime, we will be releasing the Season III roadmap in January (for real this time),” the team added.

DeGods is not the only top NFT collection on Solana that has announced its departure from the blockchain. The other project that will also be leaving Solana is yoots, a community-first NFT collection. Yoots will migrate from Solana to Polygon, a layer-two network on Ethereum.

The news of the departure of DeGods and yoots from Solana has caused a notable decline in the Solana TVL. Over the past month, data from DeFiLlama shows that the Solana TVL has plunged by nearly 25%. The network currently has a TVL of around $215 million.

The Solana ecosystem was hardly hit by the FTX and Alameda fallout. The founder of FTX and Alameda, Sam Bankman-Fried, was one of the early investors in Solana, and he played a crucial role in promoting the network. The bankruptcy of FTX triggered selling pressure in SOL, causing a notable dip in Solana’s market capitalization.

The situation worsened the effects of the bear market that has persisted since the beginning of the year. The Solana TVL is now down by 96% since early 2022. On-chain activity on the Solana blockchain has also dropped significantly. In the last few months, wallet addresses, transactions, and wallets interacting with Solana have dropped.

While the DeFi ecosystem on Solana is dying, the NFT activity on the network remains notably high even after the departure of yoots and DeGods. The 30-day NFT sale volumes on the Solana network hit $50 million.

Ethereum remains the king of DeFi and NFTs

Despite this year’s bearish pressure that has seen Ether’s value plunge by nearly 75%, the Ethereum network has continued to dominate the DeFi and NFT spaces by a considerable margin. Ethereum’s switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in September this year increased attention to Ethereum.

Nevertheless, the Ethereum Merge did not solve the issue of high gas fees and slow transactions on Ethereum. These issues will be solved by upgrades released in the coming years. However, Ethereum’s switch to proof of stake was the first step toward improving the network’s scalability.