{"investigation":{"slug":"solana","entity_name":"Solana","trust_score":89,"severity_base":89,"score_modifier":0,"confidence":0.85,"status":"published","content_type":"investigation","summary":"Solana is a high-throughput layer-1 blockchain whose native token is SOL, supported by the Solana Foundation. It suffered repeated outages in 2021-2022 and a full halt in February 2024, was named by the SEC as an alleged security in 2023 lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, and has seen large ecosystem exploits such as the April 2026 Drift Protocol incident, while also gaining US spot ETFs in late 2025.","sections":[{"content":"Solana had a series of full or partial outages concentrated in 2021-2022, including a September 2021 congestion event during a Raydium token launch, and several in 2022 attributed to bot spam, NFT minting surges and consensus failures. A cluster instability event occurred in February 2023. The most recent full halt reported was on February 6, 2024, lasting roughly five hours and attributed to a bug in the durable transaction nonce mechanism. Secondary reporting says the network has had no full outage since, though counts vary by tracker (Helius counts seven incidents; IsDown lists about 30 including partial disruptions).","heading":"Network reliability and outages","sources":[{"url":"https://www.helius.dev/blog/solana-outages-complete-history","name":"Helius: Solana outages complete history","type":"research","credibility":2},{"url":"https://isdown.app/status/solana/outage-history","name":"IsDown: Solana outage history","type":"other","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/solana-network-outage-provokes-upwards-of-2-million-in-long-position-liquidations-202402061900","name":"FXStreet: Solana outage and liquidations (Feb 2024)","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"In June 2023 the SEC's complaints against Binance and Coinbase listed SOL among tokens it alleged to be securities. The Solana Foundation publicly disputed this, stating that SOL is not a security. Reporting indicates the SEC later withdrew a request related to Solana's classification in the Binance case, though commentators disagreed about what that meant. In September 2025 the SEC approved generic listing standards for crypto ETPs, and Bitwise's staking-based spot Solana ETF (BSOL) began trading on 2025-10-28 per reporting, with other issuers following. I did not verify the final disposition of the SEC cases from primary court records.","heading":"Regulatory status of SOL","sources":[{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/sol-is-not-a-security-says-the-solana-foundation","name":"Cointelegraph: SOL is not a security, says Solana Foundation","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/sec-still-eyes-solana-security","name":"Nasdaq: SEC still eyes Solana security","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-approves-generic-etf-listing-standards-clearing-path-for-digital-asset-listings-without-individual-approval","name":"Cointelegraph: SEC approves generic ETF listing standards","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/amp/post/376428/solana-etfs-in-the-spotlight-bitwises-bsol-to-debut-on-nyse-on-tuesday","name":"The Block: Bitwise BSOL to debut on NYSE","type":"news_article","credibility":2}],"severity":"medium"},{"content":"On April 1, 2026 the Solana-based trading protocol Drift was exploited for an amount reported between roughly $200 million and $285 million. Drift's account describes a durable-nonce based attack using pre-signed transactions and a roughly six-month social-engineering operation; it linked the activity to a North Korea-aligned group (UNC4736), while Elliptic described hallmarks of a likely North Korea-linked operation. Mandiant was reported to be investigating without formal attribution at the time of reporting. This was an application-level incident rather than a failure of the Solana base layer, and some outlets call it the largest Solana-ecosystem exploit since Wormhole. A separate January 2026 treasury breach involving about 261,854 SOL (about $27 million) was reported by a single secondary outlet and is low confidence. The Solana Foundation reportedly launched security programs (STRIDE and an Incident Response Network) afterward.","heading":"Ecosystem security incidents (2026)","sources":[{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-04-01-solana-trading-platform-drift-exploited-at-least-200-million-396107","name":"The Block: Drift exploited for at least $200 million","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/363087/solana-drift-protocol-exploited-285-million","name":"Decrypt: Drift Protocol exploited for $285 million","type":"news_article","credibility":2},{"url":"https://whale-alert.io/stories/c0a101b6ab41cc/Drift-Protocol-loses-270M-in-largest-Solanaera-hack-after-sixmonth-inperson-socialengineering-operation","name":"Whale Alert: Drift says exploit linked to North Korea-aligned actors","type":"news_article","credibility":3},{"url":"https://www.analyticsinsight.net/solana/solana-hit-hard-three-platforms-close-after-massive-27m-hack","name":"Analytics Insight: three platforms close after $27M hack","type":"news_article","credibility":3}],"severity":"high"},{"content":"The Alpenglow consensus overhaul reportedly passed a governance vote with about 98% support and was reported running on a community test cluster in May 2026. Reports give inconsistent rollout timing and no source confirmed a mainnet date.","heading":"Protocol development: Alpenglow","sources":[{"url":"https://www.tradingnews.com/news/solana-price-forecast-sol-usd-at-85-usd-alpenglow-ratified-and-drift-protocol-drains","name":"TradingNews: Alpenglow ratified","type":"news_article","credibility":3}],"severity":"low"}],"timeline":[{"date":"2021-09","event":"Network stalled during a Raydium token launch congestion event","source":"Helius","source_url":"https://www.helius.dev/blog/solana-outages-complete-history"},{"date":"2023-06","event":"SEC complaints against Binance and Coinbase name SOL among alleged securities; Solana Foundation disputes","source":"Cointelegraph","source_url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/sol-is-not-a-security-says-the-solana-foundation"},{"date":"2024-02","event":"Full network halt of about five hours attributed to a durable nonce bug","source":"FXStreet","source_url":"https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/solana-network-outage-provokes-upwards-of-2-million-in-long-position-liquidations-202402061900","date_evidence":"Solana network outage provokes upwards of $2 million in long position liquidations 202402061900","date_original":"2024-02-06"},{"date":"2025-10-28","event":"Bitwise BSOL, first US spot Solana ETF, begins trading","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/amp/post/376428/solana-etfs-in-the-spotlight-bitwises-bsol-to-debut-on-nyse-on-tuesday","date_evidence":"officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 28, 2025"},{"date":"2026-04-01","event":"Drift Protocol exploited for $200-285 million","source":"The Block","source_url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-04-01-solana-trading-platform-drift-exploited-at-least-200-million-396107","date_evidence":"Drift halted deposits and withdrawals on April 1, 2026"}],"sources_used":[{"url":"https://www.helius.dev/blog/solana-outages-complete-history","name":"Helius: Solana outages complete history","type":"research","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20261006111659/https://www.helius.dev/blog/solana-outages-complete-history","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-10-06T11:16:59+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/solana-network-outage-provokes-upwards-of-2-million-in-long-position-liquidations-202402061900","name":"FXStreet: Solana outage Feb 2024","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://cointelegraph.com/news/sol-is-not-a-security-says-the-solana-foundation","name":"Cointelegraph: SOL is not a security","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/sec-still-eyes-solana-security","name":"Nasdaq: SEC still eyes Solana security","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-04-01-solana-trading-platform-drift-exploited-at-least-200-million-396107","name":"The Block: Drift exploit","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null},{"url":"https://decrypt.co/363087/solana-drift-protocol-exploited-285-million","name":"Decrypt: Drift exploit","type":"news_article","archive_url":"http://web.archive.org/web/20260818114857/https://decrypt.co/363087/solana-drift-protocol-exploited-285-million","credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":"2026-08-18T11:48:57+00:00"},{"url":"https://www.theblock.co/amp/post/376428/solana-etfs-in-the-spotlight-bitwises-bsol-to-debut-on-nyse-on-tuesday","name":"The Block: BSOL debut","type":"news_article","archive_url":null,"credibility":2,"archive_timestamp":null}],"source_tags":[],"addresses":[],"reviewed":false,"reviewed_by":null,"model_used":"claude-code-investigator","created_at":"2026-04-28T21:13:07.365687+00:00","updated_at":"2026-11-08T16:40:27.378889+00:00"},"source_quality":{"total":12,"tier1":0,"tier2":5,"tier3":0,"unrated":7},"follower_count":null,"content_updated_at":"2026-11-08T15:27:02.495Z","last_fact_checked_at":"2026-10-27T06:41:47.897Z","fact_check_next_allowed_at":null,"update_next_allowed_at":"2026-11-15T15:27:06.376Z"}