Solana, BlackRock, Bonk, Uniswap secure top honors in CoinMarketCap’s inaugural crypto awards Solana, BlackRock, Bonk, Uniswap secure top honors in CoinMarketCap’s inaugural crypto awards
CoinMarketCap named Solana as Crypto of the Year for its incredible growth and resilience over the past year.
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Updated: Mar. 6, 2024 at 7:59 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Solana has emerged as the inaugural winner of CoinMarketCap’s CMC Crypto of the Year award, according to a Mar. 6 statement shared with CryptoSlate.
The CMC award is designed to celebrate excellence in the crypto space across eight categories, honoring outstanding projects and individuals. It was awarded after a meticulous ten-day evaluation involving online voting, data analysis, and expert reviews.
Crypto of the year
The award, which recognizes groundbreaking innovation and the enduring impact of a blockchain network on the industry, had nominees like Ripple,ย Chainlink,ย Ethereum, andย Toncoin.
However, Solana triumphed over these strong contenders for showingย resilience in overcoming various challenges, including network outages and the past relationship with the disgraced founder of defunct exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried.
Additionally, the blockchain network scored pivotal partnerships from various traditional finance projects like Visa and has experienced notable adoption during the past year,
These developments prompted asset management firm VanEck to predict that SOL will become one of the top three blockchain networks by market cap, total value locked (TVL), and active users by the end of this year.
Other winners:
Bridge Builder of the Year: BlackRock, the largest asset management firm in the world, claimed this title for its leading role in the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US. Other competitors in this field included PayPal, Reddit, Starbucks, and Nike.
Memecoin of the Year: BONK was given this accolade due to its significant impact on the Memecoin sector. During the past year, BONK rose more than 5000% in value and played an essential role in growing Solana’s ecosystem.
Social Influencer to Watch: Onchain crypto sleuth ZachXBT received recognition for his adeptness in uncovering scams and fraudulent activities within the crypto industry.
Most Innovative L1/L2/Cross-Chain Project: Celestia topped this category due to its advancements in scalability, security, and interoperability among networks. Celestia is the first modular blockchain network, which aims to simplify blockchain deployment and enhance scalability.
Most Innovative NFT and Gaming Project: Pudgy Penguins took the spotlight as the NFT project demonstrating the most innovation in the NFT and gaming space.
Most Innovative DeFi Project: Uniswap clinched this award, highlighting its groundbreaking contributions to the DeFi ecosystem. Recently, the DEX introduced a new governance proposal that redirects the protocol fees to UNI token holders to incentivize engagement within its community.
Crypto Leader of the Year: A remarkable tie occurred in this category, with Vitalik Buterin, Changpeng Zhao, Julia Leung, Brian Armstrong, and Ryan Selkis all sharing the award for their contributions to the industry.
CoinMarketCap CEO Rush Luton said:
“All five of the nominees have contributed so much over the last 12 months but in very different ways and we wanted to recognize all their tremendous efforts to move the industry forward.”
The CMC Awards winners were presented with Ethereum-based NFTs as tokens of recognition.
Mentioned in this article
Ethereum 
Solana 
Celestia 
Bitcoin 
Uniswap 
Bonk 
Pepe 
Binance 
Ripple 
Coinbase 
VanEck 
PayPal 
Reddit 
Vitalik Buterin 
Changpeng Zhao 
Brian Armstrong 
ZachXBT Author 
Oluwapelumi Adejumo
Oluwapelumi values Bitcoin's potential. He imparts insights on a range of topics like DeFi, hacks, mining and culture, underlining transformative power.
Editor Editor 
Assad Jafri
AJ, a passionate journalist since Yemen's 2011 Arab Spring, has honed his skills worldwide for over a decade. Specializing in financial journalism, he now focuses on crypto reporting.
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In this article
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Solana
$142.832
Solana is a high-performance blockchain platform that utilizes a unique consensus algorithm called “Proof of History” to achieve fast transaction speeds and low fees.
Celestia
$10.4733
Celestia (TIA) is the first modular blockchain network that enables anyone to deploy their own blockchain with minimal overhead easily.
Bitcoin
$63,369.38
Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
Uniswap
$7.59852
Since its inception, the Uniswap Protocol (“Uniswap”) has served as a trustless and highly decentralized financial infrastructure.
Bonk
$0.00003
Bonk is the first Solana dog coin for the people, by the people with 50% of the total supply airdropped to the Solana community.
Binance
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
Ripple
Ripple is a US-based technology company which develops the Ripple payment protocol and exchange network using XRP, the digital asset native to the XRP Ledger.
Coinbase
Coinbase is a digital currency exchange and wallet service that allows individuals to buy, sell, and store digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
VanEck
VanEck is a global investment manager with offices around the world, including New York, Australia, China, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.
PayPal
PayPal is an American multinational financial technology firm that operates an online payment system in most countries that permits online money transfers and serves as an electronic replacement for conventional paper methods like checks and money orders.
Reddit is a social news aggregation, conversation, and content-rating website based in the United States.
Vitalik Buterin stands as the pioneering force behind Ethereum, a transformative community-driven platform that fuels the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and underpins a myriad of decentralized applications.
Changpeng Zhao, popularly known as “CZ,” is a notable figure in the cryptocurrency world, primarily for founding and leading Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume.
Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, stands at the forefront of the digital currency revolution.
ZachXBT is an independent on-chain sleuth who is popular on revealing bad actors in the crypto space.