Privacy Browser Brave Expands Beyond Ethereum to Solana

Privacy-centric crypto browser Brave today announced an integration with Solana, the cryptocurrency network behind the market's fourth-most valuable coin.

Brendan Eich, the CEO of Brave, said, “With more and more users and creators requiring tools for fast and affordable access to the decentralized Web, this integration will seamlessly pave the way for the next billion crypto users to harness applications and tokens.”

Brave is turning to Solana due to the crypto network’s high speeds and low costs, according to a company blog post. Unlike other smart contract-enabled blockchains such as Ethereum, simple transactions on Solana cost as little as 0.000005 SOL, or $0.001, per data from Solana Beach. 

The low fees could potentially make interacting with crypto, specifically Eich’s projected “next billion crypto users,” far more attractive. 

The move could prove just as beneficial for the Solana ecosystem, as Brave currently boasts 42 million monthly active users. Once the integration is complete in the first half of 2022, millions of Brave users will be exposed to a variety of new Solana decentralized applications, or dapps. 

“Deep integration with browsers is key to helping dapps build the best web experiences. Brave’s announcement of Solana wallet support across all versions of their browsers is an important step to onboard the next billion users to Solana,” said Anatoly Yakovenko, CEO of Solana Labs, in a press release. 

According to data pulled from App Figures, Brave is also currently the third-most downloaded internet browser, after Opera and Google's Chrome. Brave is built using the same free and open-source codebase as Chrome.

The announcement has been particularly bullish for Brave’s Ethereum-based token, the Basic Attention Token (BAT). At the moment, BAT is up more than 19% on the day, according to CoinGecko. 

Solana’s native crypto, SOL, meanwhile is down slightly today—a 1.3% dip—after rising above a record-breaking $260 per coin over the weekend.

Solana has had a breakout year in 2021. On January 1, the cryptocurrency was trading at less than $2. Today, SOL is now trading at $249.

The booming NFT collectibles space and the growth of DeFi products—the sort that allow for trading, borrowing, and lending services without third-party intermediaries like banks—have been primary drivers behind the network’s success. 

Last month, for instance, the total value locked on DeFi projects built on Solana hit a record-breaking $12.7 billion, with projects like Raydium, Marinade Finance, and Serum all leading the way. Emerging DeFi projects are also attracting big money from big-brand investors.