Why did solana's price rocket today? Bonk airdrop sparks interest

Despite most major cryptocurrencies trading in the red, solana ( SOL-USD ) tokens shot up 17% in Tuesday late afternoon trading on reports that new meme coin Bonk (BONK-USD) is set to conduct a sizable airdrop in a move that has fired up interest across the SOL ecosystem. SOL shed more than 90% of its value in 2022 given its close ties to Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced FTX ( FTT-USD ) co-founder and former CEO who is facing federal charges for defrauding investors and customers. Now, SOL, changing hands at $13.21 at 5:14 p.m. ET, is kicking off 2023 as one of the biggest winners. The Bonk airdrop consists of 50% of its coin supply, CoinDesk reported, adding that around 20% of the airdrop supply was directed to solana-based non-fungible token collections and 10% went to solana-focused collectors. Note a crypto airdrop, in an effort to attract users, is the process of distributing a token typically free of charge. The shiba inu dog-themed crypto gained 21.2% to $0.00000111 at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data . Earlier, solana in the green, easily outpacing other major cryptos after ugly 2022 .