Solana’s New Path: It has been an eventful year for the Solana ecosystem. Plagued with network outages, the blockchain’s security has been understandably questioned. But the unexpected icing on the cake came on the implosion of Solana’s price in the unraveling of FTX. Serum, a central source of liquidity for the Solana DeFi ecosystem, plummeted as its close association with FTX became a concern. Solana’s total value locked in DeFi is down over 71% in the past month. As the dust settles, the community continues to gather pieces for a new path. Solana’s value proposition of delivering low fees, high throughput, and fast settlement is the basis for its survival. But more than ever, developers and validators must remain incentivized. Validators on the network remain strong – there are more than 1905, which is a modest 13% below pre-FTX levels. The stake of Solana across validators also remains quite evenly distributed, lessening the risk of disruptive collusion. Solana DeFi ecosystem is demonstrating dynamism that is key to its survival. Solana developers raced to replace Serum with a more transparent public utility protocol, Openbook. It has since gathered strong support from major players in the Solana DeFi ecosystem, such as Raydium, Slope, Jupiter Aggregator, Switchboard, Openserum, and Mango Markets. Solana's co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, hailed these community efforts as “a demonstration of decentralization in action.” Solana’s separation from a centralized entity in FTX could be a blessing in disguise. It provides Solana with a cleaner decentralized pathway that other players in the digital ecosystem are embracing.