The price of helium has plunged 23% following its delisting from Binance and a delay in the launch of its network on Solana. This has come as a major setback for the helium community, which has been eagerly anticipating the launch of the network on Solana to increase network efficiency and scalability. Helium is a leading player in the IoT market, where it has gained significant traction due to its unique approach to wireless networking. With the recent developments, the helium team will need to focus on finding new exchange listings and addressing network issues to regain investor confidence.
Helium’s HNT token took a considerable hit, dropping by more than 23% on Friday due to the announcement of Binance’s plan to delist it from its exchange effective March 23. Binance.US, a sister company that caters to American customers, also made a similar announcement. As a result, HNT was trading as low as $1.52 on Friday, marking a 17% drop in value over the past 24 hours, but then it rose to $1.60. The governing body behind the Helium network responded via Twitter, suggesting that users consider switching to the self-custodial Helium Wallet app or any exchange that confirms migration support. Unfortunately, the delisting comes just a month before the Helium blockchain’s scheduled merge with Solana, which was slated to happen next month.
Helium is a decentralized wireless network designed explicitly for Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as sensors and trackers. Users can share connectivity with others using their smartphones with greater privacy than a traditional WiFi network and earn HNT in the process. Helium received a lot of investment interest from big names such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), but it has faced problems lately. Last year, scooter rideshare startup Lime and cloud software giant Salesforce denied any active partnership with Helium, despite their logos appearing on its website at the time.
The blockchain’s native token, HNT, was trading as high as $22.99 at one point, reaching its $54.88 all-time high in the months following November 2021. However, it has since faced challenges. The announcement yesterday informed the stakeholders of the Helium network’s decision to delay the blockchain’s long-anticipated Solana merge until April 18th. The merge aims to make data transfer for devices faster, more reliable, and more scalable. Helium encourages HNT users to move to an exchange that has confirmed migration support or the self-custodial Helium Wallet app in light of the latest development.