Software giant Adobe announced it added support for Solana NFTs on its Behance social media site. As of March 7th, Behance’s 10 million-plus users could upload original Solana-based NFTs to their profile via the Phantom crypto wallet.
According to Adobe’s VP William Allen, Behance wanted to offer artists a more energy-efficient and cost-effective way to experiment with NFTs. Although Adobe already has integrations with Ethereum, Allen said some Behance users weren’t comfortable with Ethereum’s high gas fees and greenhouse gas emissions.
Thanks to its Proof of Stake design, Solana transactions are faster, cheaper, and more eco-friendly than Ethereum. In fact, William Allen claimed a Solana transaction takes “less energy than two Google searches.”
Allen also thanked the blockchain company QuickNode in his Twitter announcement. Based in Miami, QuickNode is helping Adobe connect with the Phantom wallet and the Solana blockchain.
Adobe first allowed artists on Behance to upload Ethereum NFTs in October of 2021. Since then, the California-based company introduced NFT functions to Photoshop and added Polygon NFTs to Behance.
Adobe is also interested in helping NFT creators protect their artwork from thieves and scammers. To do this, it created “Content Credentials,” which helps store and track data using Adobe’s ID system.
At the end of William Allen’s Twitter thread, he said Adobe is interested in adding more NFT functions to Behance. However, there’s no word on which blockchains Adobe would like to add next.
Solana Continues to Gain Traction with NFT Collectors
Although Ethereum is the dominant blockchain for NFT trading, Solana has been picking up steam in the past few months. Analysts at the company CryptoSlam! announced Solana’s monthly NFT trading volume hit $1 billion in January of 2022.
It’s also not unheard of for rare Solana NFTs to sell for over $1 million. For example, Moonrock Capital bought Degen Ape #7225 for 5,980 SOL in September of 2021. At the time of sale, 5,980 SOL cost about $1.1 million.
The Solana Monkey Business collection also gained significant attention when someone bought SolMonkey #1355 for 13,027 SOL (about $2 million). According to Rarity Sniper’s analytics, SolMonkey #1355 is the rarest NFT in Solana Monkey Business, with a Rarity Score of 2654.49.
In addition to these impressive sales and its Behance partnership, Solana has ties with many celebrities and prominent NFT projects. For instance, the music NFT platform Snowcrash runs a Solana node. Also, NBA star Metta Sandiford-Artest chose Solana to drop his first NFT sneaker collection.
Despite Solana’s recent wins, it remains far behind Ethereum in terms of total NFT sales. Current data suggests monthly NFT trading on OpenSea reached $5 billion in January of 2022. The site DeFi Llama suggests that Ethereum now has $111.7 billion total value locked (TVL). Currently, Solana has $6.67 billion TVL.