According to Solana co-founder, the bear market might last for another "12 to 18 months."

The co-founder of Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko, predicts that the current crypto bear market may last for another 12 to 18 months.

The Solana blockchain's developer stated on the GM Podcast that he expected the Fed to raise interest rates to have an impact on the macroeconomic situation. He does, however, believe that, as was the case in earlier bear markets, projects that put a strong emphasis on construction would ultimately succeed.

"When it comes to macro issues, I predict that the painful Fed rate increases will likely continue for another 12 to 18 months. But it has a conclusion. A lot of teams that constructed and concentrated on product-market fit, and really tried to build wonderful products—a lot of those succeeded, I think, in a pretty dramatic way, exactly like the last bear market," Yakovenko added.

The computer scientist, who was born in Ukraine, is not the only one who anticipates a protracted bear market where initiatives might fortify themselves. The "crypto winter," according to Ursula O'Kuinghttons, director of communications and partnerships at Web3 Foundation and Polkadot, is a turning point because it will attract new companies with more expertise to the industry.

The cryptocurrency market has crashed, but it will recover. We have undoubtedly reached a tipping point when more knowledgeable ecosystem participants are entering. While the developers will keep working on blockchain technology regardless of the market's hysteria, she said.

How prepared is Solana for the market downturn?

Projects are still optimistic in the bear market, but cryptocurrency prices have fallen more. The Solana blockchain's native coin, SOL, has not been an exception to this rule. According to data from CryptoRank, SOL is currently selling at about $33.44, down 80.4% year to date.

The price of SOL has been impacted by persisting technical challenges with the layer 1 blockchain in addition to the bear market. The Solana blockchain has experienced numerous large outages, the most recent of which occurred last week and lasted for about six hours.

Solana has received a lot of criticism as a result of this, but the blockchain network has nonetheless made incredible strides because of its fast throughput and low transaction fees. In six weeks, Solana's share of all NFT trade activity rose from 7% to 24% as the network surpassed Ethereum in market share, per data cited by cryptocurrency research platform Delphi Capital.

Along with this, new projects are constantly appearing on the Solana blockchain, and entrepreneurs inside the Solana ecosystem have been doing well in investment rounds.