In fact, the founder of Pantera Capital, Dan Morehead, stated to CNBC that the fund holds 1.1 billion dollars in SOL.
HE CALLS IT THE FASTEST AND BEST PERFORMING BLOCKCHAIN EVEN OUTPACING BITCOIN OVER THE LAST 4 YEARS pic.twitter.com/qUOfr6xCC7
— Kyle Chassé / DD
He also stated that he considers it their biggest bet.
Solana vs Bitcoin
Morehead highlighted that Solana has outperformed Bitcoin over the past four years.
This is true both in terms of price and usage, but in reality, Solana and Bitcoin are two different things, not directly comparable.
Solana is a platform for crypto transactions and exchanges, particularly for the launch of memecoins and other tokens.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is primarily a financial asset with a deflationary nature, whose blockchain is much less used precisely because BTC is not primarily used for exchanges or payments, but primarily as a risk-on asset to hedge against the expansive monetary policies of central banks.
However, Pantera Capital is involved in investments and financial speculation, so it is obvious that it is primarily interested in price trends.
Price Trend
In October 2020, before the last major crypto bull run began, the price of Solana was around $2.
During 2021, it reached an all-time high of around $240, achieving a performance exceeding +10,000%.
However, during 2022 it plummeted to around $9, with a loss exceeding 96%.
Already in 2023, however, it recovered to $100, and at the beginning of 2024, it managed to get close to $200.
Subsequently, it retraced towards $120, but at the end of the year, it recorded another speculative bubble thanks to the Trump-trade, which marked a new all-time high above $290.
If we consider the average annual prices instead of the peaks, 2021 closed at around $80, while 2022 at $57 and 2023 at $29. Therefore, its average trend over the years turns out to be much less volatile compared to the daily trend, although still decidedly volatile.
2024 closed with an average price above $150, and so far the average price for 2025 is around $170.
Bitcoin, however, in October 2020 was around $11,000, rose to nearly $70,000 in 2021, fell to $15,000 in 2022, and then in 2024 rose above $70,000.
The average price of BTC in 2021 was approximately $47,000, in 2022 about $28,000, in 2023 around $29,000, and in 2024 about $66,000. So far in 2025, it is approximately $101,000.
Therefore, while volatility calculated based on maximum and minimum peaks is on Solana’s side, when calculated on annual averages, it is often on Bitcoin’s side, except in some exceptional years.
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