Among all of the so-called Ethereum-killers, Solana is by far the most formidable. Without a doubt, 2022 was a rollercoaster ride for this cryptocurrency, mainly because it started the year on a bullish note.
However, right from November 2022 until early 2023, things went downhill for Solana.
Fast forward to the time of writing, and Solana has moved up by a whopping 600% on a YTD basis.
This is miles more than Ethereum and even Bitcoin has travelled, and analysts are starting to consider Solana to be a viable competitor to ETH
Here's what we mean:
This week, Solana has just broken past the $82 mark for the first time since May 2022.
According to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency is up by about 13% today alone and is now trading at around $86.17 at the time of writing.
However, the impressive thing about Solana's recent price movement is not only its intra-day price movement.
Solana's market cap has also surged by 12.5% over the last day, putting the total figure at about $36 billion.
Solana, so far, has now beaten XRP by a whopping $ billion to become the 5th largest cryptocurrency overall, by market cap.
This is similar to what we saw earlier in the month, with Avalanche beating the likes of Tron and Dogecoin to become the 9th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Solana's journey gets even more interesting though.
According to a recent, lengthy thread from analyst, Evans, Solana is now putting considerable pressure on the Ethereum ecosystem.
Evans mentions that Solana's focus on the mobile aspects of blockchain technology may turn out to be its edge in the fight to overtake Ethereum.
He says that while Ethereum being decentralized might be a good thing, the average "gambler" doesn't really care. The average person simply wants to make some money.
"They just want a good gambling experience and will go to where the game is being hosted. And they'll stay if they win/enjoy it"
In all, Evans says that Solana may have a better competitive advantage over Ethereum, in that it has a better user experience.
It is hard to imagine that just three weeks ago Solana's TVL stood at a little more than $650 million, representing less than 1.5% of the market share.
Today, Solana's TVL sits at around $1.2 billion according to DefiLlama, and is growing at an alarming rate.
This impressive growth is mainly a result of the recently launched SPL tokens like Bonk, Jito and Pyth.
Similarly, the total volume transacted in Solana's Defi protocols sits at around $1,59 billion over the last 24 hours alone. The total active addresses on the network have also hit a high of around 385,241 at the time of writing.
Solana has also become increasingly attractive to investors with its generous airdrops and token launches, which have garnered massive profits for investors.
One good example is BONK, which at the time of writing, is up by more than 17,000% this year alone.
Another good example is $JITO, the native cryptocurrency of the Jito liquid staking system, which was modelled after Ethereum's Lido.
Jito exploded in the final quarter of 2023, after being listed by Coinbase. The cryptocurrency now has a total market cap of over $300 million, creating a surge of interest in SOlana-based tokens.
Interestingly enough, several more Solana-based tokens will hit the market via airdrops very soon, including Jupiter, Meow, Phantom, Kamino, Bonkwifhat and many more.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.