Thanks to the Federal Reserve's policy of aggressively hiking interest rates with the intention of fighting inflation, investors just aren't as enthusiastic about owning high-flying cryptos as they were throughout 2021. Solana was created with a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, giving token owners the ability to lock up their holdings in order to validate new transactions and secure the network. Not only does this digital asset solve a problem in the payments market with its speedy transaction times and low costs, but its partnership with Google provides some serious legitimacy to the project and its long-term prospects.