With hundreds of dApps deployed across L1s and L2s, finding fundamentally strong projects before the hype sets in can make or break your strategy and expected gains.

But you can’t pick just any project to be a part of your portfolio and expect to come out on top.

When comparing blockchain ecosystems, for me, Solana stands out for its diversity of apps. While many developer ecosystems focus on financial use cases, Solana's projects span everything from DePIN to weatherFi.

This diversity of use cases, combined with solid fundamentals and healthy adoption levels, makes Solana a top ecosystem for forming an index.

As Solana earns another wave of attention, there are a few projects poised to shine.

For example, projects on Solana like Metaplex are constantly creating tools and primitives to help developers ship faster and more efficiently. Meanwhile, Helium and Render are continuing to contribute to network usage through their respective DePINs.

In terms of DeFi, Solana is the 3rd largest chain with a TVL of $4.8b. It’s also home to Jupiter Perps, the number one derivatives platform in DeFi, with a TVL of $681m.

Solana’s projects can be broadly categorized into two types (for the sake of the portfolio):

• Solana Core eco Projects: These are the core products that form a strong foundation for the network.
• ‘Mass adoption driver’  Projects: Projects with the potential to attract the Web2 crowd to Web3 and are likely to help onboard mass users.

To ensure the portfolio is adequately diversified, we’re going to include a few picks from both types of projects.

But, the goal is clear: mitigate risks and ideally outperform SOL.

This strategy is meant to hedge against the risk of sole exposure to SOL, while also tapping into opportunities for outsized returns from projects that could lead in sectors like DeFi, DePIN, and even memecoins.

Let’s walk through some projects that I’m personally excited about - I view all of them as long-term plays.

Metaplex (MPLX)

The Metaplex protocol creates tools and token standards for developers to create, sell, and manage digital assets more efficiently.

Metaplex has grown to become one of the most widely used protocols and developer platforms achieving 121k $SOL ($17.66m) in revenue since its inception in 2021. In fact, Metaplex generated 7,835 $SOL (~$1.14m) in revenue, in June 2024 alone!

The team is most known for the development of the Bubblegum protocol and compressed NFTs (cNFTs). cNFTs provide a cost-efficient way to issue and manage large NFT collections on Solana, by reducing the cost of on-chain storage for NFTs.

For instance, cNFTs lower the cost of minting 1 million NFTs from 12,000 $SOL ($1.7 million) to just 5.35 $SOL ($781). At present, bubblegum is being used to create and mint 10s of millions of NFTs on Solana monthly. Metaplex’s other products, for fungible tokens, are beginning to see adoption as well.  

In June 2024, the team began directing 50% of the protocol’s revenue to token buybacks.  The funds are used to increase the treasury and fund integration & development grants for Metaplex products.

It’s clear Metaplex is positioning itself to provide pickaxes (developer tools & asset standards) to gold miners (developers & users), for many bull runs to come.

MPLX Token Supply & Distribution

• TGE/launch:  Sept. 2022
• Current Price: $0.21
• Market Cap: $210,637,788
• Circulating Supply: 973,327,846 $MPLX
• Total supply: 1 Billion (1,000,000,000) $MPLX

Initial distribution:

• Creators & Early Supporters: 21.90% (219,000,000 $MPLX)
• Metaplex DAO: 16.00% (160,000,000 $MPLX) (100% unlock at TGE)
• Metaplex Foundation: 20.31% (203,057,143 $MPLX)(100% unlock at TGE)
• Strategic Round: 10.20% (102,042,857 $MPLX)
• Everstake: 10.00% (100,000,000 $MPLX)(2-year cliff, 1-year vesting)
• Metaplex Studios: 9.75% (97,500,000 $MPLX)(2-year cliff, 1-year vesting)
• Community Airdrop: 5.40% (54,000,000 $MPLX) - Airdrop date: September 19, 2022
• Founding Advisors: 3.34% (33,400,000 $MPLX)
• Founding Partners: 3.10% (31,000,000 $MPLX)

MPLX Token Utility

$MPLX tokens give holders the right to vote on issues regarding Metaplex’s development and operations, including:

• Protocol development roadmap
• $MPLX utility
• Use of treasury funds
• Protocol ownership, upgrades, and deployment

Why do I like MPLX?

Since the creation of cNFTs, Metaplex has established itself as a staple of the Solana ecosystem.  But, it’s important to remember, that Metaplex’s product suite extends beyond cNFTs, and includes tools for composable NFTs, fungible tokens, token metadata, inscriptions, and more.

The standards and program libraries that generate revenue for the protocol include:

• Core: Metaplex Core is a cost-effective NFT standard, featuring a single-account design that simplifies minting and reduces costs.
• Token Metadata:  The Token Metadata program attaches additional data to tokens for more fine-tuned management of NFTs and fungible assets.
• Bubblegum:  Bubblegum is the Metaplex Protocol program designed for creating and managing compressed NFTs (cNFTs) on Solana –reducing the cost of minting mass collections.
• MPL-Hybrid: MPL-404's swap program (MPL-hybrid) enables trading between fungible and non-fungible assets, allowing NFTs to tap into the liquidity and benefits of fungible assets in DeFi.
• Fusion (Trifle):  Fusion introduces on-chain tracking and composability to NFT ownership.

Protocol activity has only been up since inception. Most recently, Metaplex active users are up 15.5% from 1.9m in Q1 to 2.2m in Q2 2024.

Fungible token mints are up 50% QoQ, from 985k tokens minted in Q1 2024, to 1.5m minted in Q2. This shows increased adoption of Metaplex products beyond NFTs:

And with 50% of protocol revenue (& a portion of historical revenue) now going towards $MPLX buybacks, the protocol is making sure token holders are benefiting from the activity and usage of Metaplex products.

In July 2024, Metaplex accounted for 91% of the fungible assets minted on Solana, helping it to generate 8,736 $SOL ($1.2m). Metaplex used 10k $SOL to buyback 4.7m $MPLX, Since the protocol uses a portion of historical fees for buybacks.

To date, the protocol has used 20,000 SOL of its profits to purchase 8,484,345 $MPLX ($1.95m):

One thing to note: MPLX could be prone to sell pressure if grants –awarded in MPLX– collide with other unlock events. Although grants will likely be subject to vesting and additional terms you should always be aware of the possibilities.

However, it’s safe to say Metaplex has successfully achieved a network effect and is destined to grow in tandem with Solana, whether that’s with NFTs or their new fungible tokens.

If you need more reasons to be bullish on Metaplex, check out their monthly update for July 2024:

International Stable Currency (ISC)

ISC is a flat coin backed by RWAs like gold and global equities –heavily inspired by Ray Dalio’s “all-weather” portfolio.  

Flat coins, particularly ISC, are designed to appreciate in value regardless of market conditions, having increased by ~10% over the past 8 months:

The protocol is also gearing up for an airdrop, with its ‘Prospera’ campaign.

Why do I like ISC?

The plan is simple, hold some ISC, which is essentially a yield-bearing stablecoin, and secure an airdrop.

ISC represents the “stable” portion of the index which should help the portfolio fare during hard times, and even help it to slightly grow –as ISC grows in value.

Gains are cool, but not losing 75% of your portfolio’s value during a bear market is even cooler.

Jupiter (JUP)

Jupiter (full token brief here) is the leading swap aggregator on Solana. The team behind Jupiter recently launched Jupiter Perps, which has quickly become the largest derivatives platform on Solana, with a TVL of $618m and 7D volumes over $3B.

The team facilitated an airdrop for WEN, a memecoin, and JUP, their governance token, in Q1 2024, which made waves throughout the Solana ecosystem.

Jupiter’s product suite consists of:

• Jupiter Aggregator: Swap aggregator powered by Metis – Jupiter’s novel routing algorithm that was customized for Solana’s fast blocktimes.
• Jupiter Perps: A derivatives platform that supports wBTC, ETH, and SOL.

JUP Token Supply & Distribution

• TGE/Launch: January 2024
• Current Price: $0.80
• Market Cap: $1,081,733,469
• Circulating Supply: 1,350,000,000 $JUP
• Total supply: 10 Billion (10,000,000,000) $JUP

Initial distribution:

• Team: 50% (3.5% unlocked at TGE)
  • Current Team Members: 20% (nothing for the first year, start vesting Feb 2025 for 2 years)
  • Strategic Reserve: 15%
  • Mercurial Stakeholders: 5% (start vesting Feb 2025, schedule TBD)
  • Liquidity Provision: 10%
• Community: 50% (10% unlocked at TGE)
  • Airdrops (4 rounds): 40% (yearly airdrop every January)
  • Contributors and grants: 10%

Token allocations that do not have vesting schedules were 100% unlocked at TGE and split between Jupiter’s cold and hot wallets.

A proposal to burn 30% of the supply (3b $JUP), passed on August 4th, 2024.

JUP Token Utility

JUP is used to govern the Jupiter ecosystem, allowing holders to vote on launchpad projects, grants, and more.

At the moment, the most anticipated governance proposals are for launchpad projects. When JUP stakers vote to select launchpad projects, they are mostly guaranteed an airdrop from the newly launched project.

In addition, Jupiter distributes JUP and other launchpad token rewards to voters every quarter as active staking rewards (ASRs). The Jupiter team is well aware that it is their job to incentivize new and existing on-chain users to participate in governance and care about Solana projects.

Why do I like JUP (& JLP)?

Jupiter leverages Solana’s low costs and high speeds to route swaps for the most cost-effective quotes. As such, Jupiter has carved a special spot in the Solana ecosystem and is destined to grow with Solana.

If you’re even somewhat interested in the Solana ecosystem, I advise considering JUP. It’s probably the only altcoin I’ve seen where the overall sentiment from its blockchain ecosystem is overwhelmingly positive,

Additionally, with 3b of the JUP supply being burned, the token might be geared to go to Valhalla.

I received a JUP airdrop back in January and I staked my allocation and voted on 7 out of the 9 initial proposals. With ~1,200 JUP (~$900) staked I received ~$150 in rewards split between JUP, UPT, ZEUS, WEN, and SHARK. Not bad.

With the right influence, JUP can be regarded as a top investment because of the commitment of existing holders, and the notoriety and success of Jupiter on Solana.

Additionally, Jupiter Perps liquidity provider token (JLP) has also proven to be a sure cash cow. As the largest derivatives platform, Jupiter Perps shares 75% of fee revenue with JLP holders which has helped it grow 87% since its inception in December 2023:

If you plan to hold JUP, be sure to pay attention to governance proposals. It's important to remember that it's still relatively new, and the tokenomics are still being shaped. Proposals—like the one in August to burn 3b JUP—can have a significant impact on token holders.

All things considered, JUP & JLP are still strong hodl’s in my book.

Jito (JTO)

Jito (full token brief here) is the number one liquid staking platform (and DeFi platform) on Solana with a TVL of $1.76b, and ~82% of the network stake weight.

When SOL is deposited into Jito, the depositor receives JitoSOL, a liquid token for their staked SOL. The SOL is then delegated to MEV-enabled validators.

Jito’s MEV-enabled validator client helps to eliminate spam from MEV and provide rewards to stakers through MEV auctions.

JTO Token Supply & Distribution

• Current Price: $2.73
• Market Cap: $285,030,264
• Total Supply: 1,000,000,000 JTO
• Circulating Supply: 124,331,631 JTO

Initial Distribution

• Investors: 16.2% (162,000,000 JTO)
  • Unlock over 3 years; 1-year cliff
• Core Contributors: 24.5% (245,000,000 JTO)
  • Unlock over 3 years; 1-year cliff
• Ecosystem Development: 25% (250,000,000 JTO)
  • Used to fund communities and contributors that help drive the expansion of the liquid staking protocol and related network advances, such as StakeNet.
• Community Growth: 34.3% (343,000,000 JTO)
  • 10% of this went to the JTO airdrop and the remaining 24.3% is controlled by the DAO.

JTO Token Utility

JTO token holders participate in the governance of the protocol, including:

• Setting the fees for the JitoSOL stake pool, and its benefits
• Managing the treasury of JTO tokens
• Updates in delegation strategies and supervision of the StakeNet Program
• Contributions to the growth of the Jito ecosystem

Why do I like JTO (and JitoSOL)?

Holding JTO is a double play depending on the strength of both the Solana and Jito networks.

They’re positively correlated since Jito contributes to the Solana network, so holding some votes in governance would be valuable.

The most important incentive will be setting fees for the pools once they grow to greater amounts.

ShdwDrive by GenesysGo (SHDW)

We first talked about GenesysGo during our dive into Solana DePIN.

The SHDW Ecosystem is a series of trustless infrastructure layers focused on decentralizing the traditional cloud storage stack. shdwDrive crowdsources traditional and mobile computing power from ShdwNode operators.

ShdwNode operators are the foundation of the SHDW network and provide the storage necessary to support the network.

To connect a server to the shdwDrive network and earn rewards, operators must stake SHDW to secure their place in the network. This requirement is like a commitment fee, ensuring that only serious and dedicated participants manage the network.

There’s also an ecosystem of apps already utilizing ShdwDrive growing the protocol’s market share:

• Shadow Storage: GUI for decentralized file management
• Synx: UI/UX for managing real-world mobile & desktop data
• SPLING: Social protocol for building on-chain social media
• FireThree: FireBase for Web3; Create a Solana Dapp with collection, storage, and analytics

SHDW Tokenomics

• Current Price: $0.35
• Market Cap: $57,398,378
• Total Supply: 169,057,810 SHDW
• Circulating Supply: 161,265,472 SHDW

Initial Distribution

• Shadowy Super Coders DAO(SSC) NFT Holders: 50% (100,000,000 SHDW)
• IDO Round: 15% (30,000,000 SHDW)
• Bonus Emissions for long-term holders: 15% (30,000,000 SHDW)
• Shadow Operator Emissions: 10% (20,000,000 SHDW)
• Reserve: 10% (20,000,000 SHDW)

There is limited coverage on the initial distribution, but I found some info here: https://dropstab.com/coins/genesysgo-shadow/fundraising

Token Utility

• shdwNode Operators (staking): Must stake SHDW to connect a server to shdwDrive.
• Shared Staking: SHDW Holders can delegate their SHDW tokens to shdwNode Operators via smart contract and then share in the emissions the node receives.

Why do I like SHDW?

GenesysGo is working towards bringing a Web 2 experience into Web 3. Embedded content and seamless integration are important for mass adoption.

As the protocol grows, interest in becoming a validator or staker will expand. This alone can create buy pressure for SHDW. Storage fees are paid in different currencies so they have a healthy economic model.

Other reasons to pay attention to SHDW include:

• Decentralized mutable and immutable storage
• Shdw Network uses up to 30% of storage fees to buyback SHDW and add it to the emissions pool.
• Recognized brand in Solana space
• Novel architecture that allows for a low-cost storage solution
• First mover advantage
• The $SHDW token is fully distributed and no insiders were given allocations

ShdwDrive v2 is in the development phase and on the roadmap for Q3 2024 so that could be a catalyst –based on rollout quality and timing.

Helium (HNT)

Helium is a distributed data provider offering a low-cost solution to mobile and IoT data transfers.  

We first talked about Helium during our dive into Solana DePIN.

Helium allows users to purchase and operate hotspots to provide data to surrounding areas. Helium consists of two networks:

• IoT Network: The Helium IoT Network uses the LoRaWAN protocol to provide internet connectivity to the "Internet of Things" devices. These devices can range from thermostats to industrial sensors. The IoT network allows for the integration and automation of these devices.
• Mobile Network: The Mobile Network provides low-cost 5G wireless cell phone data plans.

By operating a hotspot, users are eligible to earn MOBILE or IOT incentives, depending on the network.

HNT Token Supply & Distribution

• TGE/Launch: April 2020
• Current Price: $7.04
• Market Cap: $1,186,628,369
• Circulating Supply: 168,568,134 $HNT
• Total supply: 223 Million (223,000,000) $HNT

Initial distribution:

• Founders & Investors: 33%
• Hotspot rewards:
  • Data Transfer: 36%
  • Consensus: 6%
• Proof of Coverage: 25%

Percentages for allocations represent the portion of the yearly emissions for each category.

Since the network uses a two-year halving schedule, the total number of tokens emitted is reduced by 50% every two years –resulting in a maximum HNT supply of 223,000,000 HNT.

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Data transfer is the only allocation controlled by the demand for the Helium network. Specifically, Data transfer rewards will depend on the amount of data transferred on the network.

When Data Transfer is not receiving the full allocated rewards –because network usage is lower than expected– the difference is allocated to Proof of Coverage emissions.

HNT Token Utility

The HNT token grants holders three main utilities:

1. Data Credits (DCs): Data Credits are the currency for data transfer, and are acquired by burning HNT, as mentioned above.  
2. veHNT: Holders can stake HNT to receive veHNT and gain governance votes for the Helium DAO. Members of the DAO (i.e., owners of HNT) can participate in the voting processes for the HIPs by staking their HNT and receiving proportional voting power. veHNT holders also receive MOBILE and IoT token rewards.
3. MOBILE and IoT redeemability: HNT offers redeemability for IOT and MOBILE.
   1. IoT Network: The IoT token is used to reward operators, including PoC oracles, hotspots, Mappers, and Service Providers who contribute to the functioning of the IoT network. IoT tokens can be swapped for HNT, which can then be sold or burned for Data Credits (DCs).
   2. Mobile Network: Similarly, the MOBILE token is used to reward operators contributing to the network via 5G-CBRS and WiFi hotspots. Similar to the IOT token, MOBILE tokens can be exchanged for HNT, which can then be sold or burned for Data Credits (DCs).

Why do I like HNT?

Helium provides a low-cost phone data solution, which can be considered a necessity. Additionally, the IoT network provides infrastructure for developers and service providers to access affordable data transfers & integrations.

Two things that can’t be ignored:

1. It’s likely that in the medium term, HNT is dumped by hotspot operators. After all, hotspots are an investment, and when you consider the overhead associated, then it’s logical that they’d want a return on their investment.
2. With HNT’s market cap sitting at $~1.1b, it has less upside compared to other alt-coins.

However, Helium’s tokenomics provides the perfect foundation for the HNT token to accrue value in proportion to network usage –which is always great stuff.

Application layer tokens often fail to tie usage to token value, which hurts them in the long run. But, Helium shows strength in this department.

At present, Most of Helium’s coverage resides in the United States, England, Eastern Europe, and some parts of China. Helium has covered a remarkable amount of land, but it’s still going to need to take over in regions like South America, and Africa if it’s going to achieve a network effect.

Helium Mobile established a partnership with T-Mobile to offboard traffic at times when phones are out of range of Helium nodes. This should help to maintain Helium’s integrity as its network scales.

In the long run, Helium and HNT will likely experience success as the team continues to penetrate the telecom market with affordable and reliable cell phone data plans.

It’s also been revealed that two major wireless carriers in the US, are considering offloading traffic to the Helium Mobile Network:

Here are some dashboards recording network activity and data credit usage, for reference.

Helium Data Credit (DC) usage:

Helium Mobile network activity:

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Render Network

Render Network is a distributed GPU rendering marketplace that connects GPU providers (node operators) with GPU requestors (digital creators).

Node operators lease their GPU compute power to creators, earning RNDR tokens in the process. This enables creators to access additional GPU resources beyond their own setup and render images more quickly and cost-effectively.

Render Network is the spinoff company of OTOY, an industry-leading cloud graphics company responsible for Octane Render, the first rendering application commercially available unbiased path-tracer that fully utilizes the GPU.

Render Network has also been used to render content for TV shows like The Peripheral and Westworld.

RENDER Token Supply & Distribution

The RNDR token was originally launched on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token, in 2017. The network has since migrated to Solana to leverage its costs and token standards that enabled additional escrow smart contract functionality for RENDER.

Migration for tokens will remain open indefinitely, with a total migration supply limit of  536,870,912 RNDR.

• TGE/Launch: April 2020
• Current Price: $4.75
• Market Cap: $1,866,853,738
• Circulating Supply: 392,459,381 $RENDER
• Total Supply: 392,459,381 $RENDER
• Max Supply: 644,245,094 $RENDER

Initial distribution:

• Public and private sale: 25%
• RENDER Reserve (“RR”): 10%
• Escrow (third-party custody account): 65%
• Escrow for partners: 26.6%

Token Buyback

To date, Render has acquired 3.2m tokens from ProBit, as part of a greater plan to purchase 4.5 million RNDR tokens to distribute as incentives.

These tokens will flow back to creators and new users on the Render ecosystem as incentives, to help scale the network for both creators and node operators in the following ways:

• User acquisitions
• Bonuses for node operators
• Airdrops

At present, the network is distributing incentives according to the following schedule

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RENDER Utility

• Governance: The Render Network Foundation consisting of all active members, including Creators, Consumers, Node Operators, and Partners, work together to make decisions for Render. Community feedback is gathered through Render Network Proposals (RNPs), with guidance from the Render Network Team on whether proposals should be submitted or considered for grants.
• RENDER burn for Render Credits: To render tasks, 3d artists are required to burn RENDER SPL Tokens to receive Render Credits, which are used for network transactions. Users can also choose to purchase Render credits with their credit cards via Stripe or Paypal. Under the hood, the funds are used to purchase and burn $RENDER for render credits.
• Revenue share (future):  As introduced in RNP-011, users will be able to stake RENDER to receive rewards from Render nodes that train AI models and generate revenue from dataset usage.

Why do I like RENDER?

Render Network has strong roots in Web2, thanks to its parent company OTOY. The team is leveraging the company's prior knowledge and infrastructure to help the Render network scale.

It’s apparent the team is committed to bootstrapping adoption through emissions incentives as shown in the documentation. Emissions are a double-edged sword; on one side they introduce inflation, but on the other side they incentivize the usage of the platform.

Nevertheless, the network is putting a lot of effort into expanding its use cases and features:

• Stability AI Partnership: OTOY and Stability AI are collaborating to optimize Stability AI’s models for Render Network. This partnership aims to integrate large AI models into 3D content workflows, offering support for over 26 major 3D software applications.
  • RNP-011: PIWA Proposal: This proposal aims to create one billion 3D assets for training on Render Network, using render nodes for asset creation and storage. Transactions are in RENDER tokens, with staking options for users to earn training revenue rewards.
• RNP-012: Cinema 4D Integration: The Render Network Wizard for Maxon Cinema 4D simplifies the process of submitting rendering tasks directly from Cinema 4D to the Render Network.
• Render Foundation Grants: The Render Foundation has expanded its grant offerings, supporting projects in 3D rendering, spatial computing, and AI.
• Cloud Storage Integration: The Render Network now supports downloading to third-party storage providers like Dropbox, with plans to include all major cloud storage providers.

As a digital creator, it's crucial to have a fast machine for your projects. Speed means you can experiment with different effects and plugins, and get quicker feedback without frequent crashes.

For creative agencies and firms, this translates to cost savings on hardware, especially as remote work becomes more prevalent. Independent creators can also benefit by accessing high-performance rendering without investing in a top-tier PC.

For example, Blender 3.4.0, a popular app for 3D graphics and special effects, recommends the Intel Arc A770 as the minimum GPU for optimal performance, which is priced at around $300.

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And, when you add in the parts to make it a complete PC, you’re looking at $900-$1,500 total. But you can rent Render GPUs for a fraction of the cost.

Similar to Helium, if you’re looking to pick up some RENDER, be aware that it’s likely to experience sell pressure from underwater bagholders, and with the market cap being ~$2.4b, which is already pretty high, it provides less upside than other alt’s.

All things considered, Render is one of the few projects with the potential to bring value from Web2 to Solana.

LSTs & SOL Staking

Now, let’s talk about SOL, LSTs, and staking options. How can we have a Solana index without any SOL?

LST options

Some of my top choices for SOL LSTs include:

INF: Infinity is the first infinite-LST pool and is Sanctum's flagship LST product. INF consists of a basket of LSTs and earns staking yields and trading fees.

JitoSOL: Jito’s liquid staking solution that derives yield from network rewards and MEV.

bSOL: bSOL is the 4th largest LST. blaze SOL has a hardy incentive program that airdrops BLZE (SolBlaze’s governance token) to bSOL holders regularly.

jupSOL: Jupiter’s LST has an attractive interest rate due to its new status.

Staking options

When I’m not looking to hold LSTs I use deposit vaults (with special features). Here are a few go-to vaults for SOL and SOL LSTs:

Super stake SOL: Super Stake is a product that leverages Drift to provide leverage for Solana LSTs.

Kamino Multiply: Kamino is a DeFi protocol providing automated LP vaults, a money market, and leveraged lending (multiply) vaults. Kamino uses LSTs as collateral to borrow, SOL, or other LSTs and achieve a higher APY –via a leveraged loop. Kamino multiply vaults regularly deliver the highest APYs for SOL. If you’re interested in understanding the risks, you can read Kamino’s documentation.

Solana Hub: Solana Hub serves as both a portfolio manager offering key functionalities like governance via Realms protocol and a validator powered by MEV rewards. As part of its “Loyalty League” program, Solana Hub distributes weekly SOL airdrops. To be eligible for these airdrops, you need to stake SOL on Solana Hub as hubSOL –the platform’s Sanctum LST. You can increase your airdrops by making referrals, owning a .hub domain, and engaging in other activities:

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Index building – Squads Protocol

Let’s see how we can create a few indices to track Solana's movements.

We’ll be storing the index using Squads, a multisig wallet provider on Solana. Building the index with Squads provides an additional layer of security and also features a dashboard with a summary of holdings and allocations. Pretty dope tool.

Solana S&P 11 (SSPXI)

My first portfolio is an index of 11 of Solana’s most promising projects and assets. I call it the Solana S&P 11 (SSPXI).

The Solana S&P 11 consists of:

• JLP (10%)
• ISC (5%)
• INF (12%)
• SOL (8%)
• HNT (8%)
• RENDER (10%)
• JUP (14%)
• JTO (13%)
• SHDW (5%)
• WIF (5%)
• MPLX (10%)

JLP and ISC represent the ‘stable’ portion of the portfolio but are riskier than holding simply USDC. JLP, being tied to the top derivatives platform on Solana, offers exposure to Solana's DeFi growth, while ISC provides a yield-generating alternative to holding USDC.

WIF, the only other token not directly discussed in the article, is included to gain exposure to the memecoin narrative on Solana.

There is a very strong possibility that simply holding SOL will outperform this portfolio in the short-term. But given a long enough period, I'm betting that these projects will either (1) grow with Solana or (2) outpace the growth of Solana as they establish their own ecosystems.

This strategy is about capturing the additional growth potential of individual projects that can carve out their niches (DeFi, Derivatives, DePIN, etc.) and generate value independently of SOL's price movements.

But what if you just want to check out mentally (we’ve all been there) and still have some nice Solana exposure? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

Solana Super Simple basket (SSSB)

• JLP (35%)
• INF (65%)

This basket is meant to be super simple. I believe this will be the most successful portfolio based on a few factors:

• Yield-Generating Assets: The portfolio includes INF, which consists of popular liquid-staking tokens (LSTs), and JLP, which earns yield from fees and positive profits on the Jupiter Perps platform.
• Multiple Appreciation Mechanisms: The value of SOL is influenced by supply and demand dynamics, while JLP’s value is driven by the profit and loss from the Jupiter Perps platform.
• Simple Yet Diverse: INF itself is a basket of LSTs, and combining it with JLP creates a well-balanced mix that doesn’t depend on a single asset.

Closing Thoughts

While Solana is showing signs of being a breakout pick, I’d argue that it’s the perfect time to accumulate positions in the ecosystem.

Holding an index consisting of all the mentioned projects will help track the ecosystem, however it will also bear the losses of each token.

I suggest you consider allocating a small portion of your SOL stack to the index (depending on your preferences for time & risk) and honing in on 1-2 projects to research and maybe allocate a larger portion of funds (like SOL or JUP).

No matter which ecosystem you connect with, I believe it is an opportune time to scope out undervalued projects and begin your own index. Happy foraging.