“Solana, Solana, Solana,” I said a year ago, to anyone who would listen. My top investment pick for 2023 turned out to be the best performing asset of 2023, by far. It bottomed out at $8.14 on December 29, 2022. I was a tad early with my bottom call of $10.98 on December 27, 2022.
On Christmas this year, a week ago, I called a Solana peak at $124.16, again very close to its actual peak of $125 - $126. As I write this a week later, on New Years Day 2024, it has dropped close to $100. From it’s 2022 year-end low to its Christmas 2023 high, Solana’s price grew more than 15x. From my low call to my high call, it grew 11.4x. According to Yahoo Finance, Solana closed 2022 at $9.96 and closed 2023 at $101.51. Strictly counting the calendar year, Solana grew 10.19x in 2023.
As 2022 came to an end, the crypto market was already at the bottom of its predictable 4-year cycle. Most cryptos had dropped around 90% from their 2021 crypto bubble highs. Solana’s fall of 97% was even more dramatic. I had never seen such a great buying opportunity with so much certainty for a quick upside, and probably never will again.
A year ago the FTX / Sam Bankman scandal was in full swing and a significant amount of Solana was held by one of Sam’s companies. Though I’m not an expert, it was clear to me Solana was building something special and they had nothing to do with Sam’s shenanigans. It was a case of guilt by association. One of Mad Money host Jim Cramer’s rules of investing is to buy damaged stocks, not damaged companies. FTX was the damaged company and Solana was a good cryptocurrency project whose price was damaged by association with it.
“Buy damaged stocks, not damaged companies.”
I saw the FTX scandal coming from a mile away. When I first got interested in cryptocurrency in early 2021, one of the first things I did was to research which company had the best crypto app. I quickly realized I needed to find a safe company, one that was well established, based in America, operating in compliance with U.S. regulations, and that could be held accountable. Coinbase was the only crypto company that satisfied my cautions and concerns. Kraken also seemed decent, but I felt better about Coinbase. So it wasn’t a surprise when Coinbase became the first publicly traded crypto exchange on the stock market, another indication of its legitimacy.
Other companies were either not as well established, based overseas or had shady vibes about them. Any company based in a location like Bahamas, as FTX was, I quickly crossed off my list. So after coming to the conclusion Coinbase was the exchange I could rely on, I was surprised to see all those celebrities and Super Bowl commercials promoting a shady company like FTX. That made me even more suspicious. It wasn’t surprising when it collapsed and its founder went to jail.
According to Business Insider, the best performing stock of 2023 was A.I. chip maker Nvidia, which grew 3.46x. But they overlooked Coinbase, the very stock exchange I discuss above, whose stock went up 4.9x. The second best performing crypto of 2023 was Avalanche, which grew 3.7x. (Avalanche was also in my top 5 crypto picks for 2023.) Solana outperformed Nvidia and Avalanche by nearly 3x and outperformed Coinbase by 2x.
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