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Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), two of the largest cryptos by market cap, have been making waves after setting all-time highs this month and posted impressive year-to-date returns. But another altcoin, Solana (SOL), has actually outperformed the two by a large margin and posted a more than 15,000 percent increase in price since the year started.
In fact, Solana is now the fourth largest crypto by market capitalization. SOL market cap is now valued at $74.8 billion based on data from CoinMarketCap.
SOL overtook the market capitalizations of the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether and Cardano this year. USDT is now valued at $72.6 billion placing it at the fifth spot while ADA is worth $67.8 billion and ranked the sixth largest crypto. On the other hand, XRP is ranked seventh with its market cap of $60.5 billion.
There are only three cryptocurrencies that are worth more than Solana. These are Bitcoin (BTC), valued at #1.23 trillion, Ethereum (ETH) at $558 billion, and Binance Coin (BNB) at $106 billion.
While Bitcoin and Ethereum have posted significant gains since the year started, Solana performed even better than both BTC and ETH in 2021. SOL, which was just priced at $1.6114 on January 1, 2021, the crypto traded at $244.98 at the time of writing representing a 15,102 percent increase this year so far. This means that those who invested $1,000 when the year started would have seen its worth rise to $15.1 million now.
On the other hand, Bitcoin only posted YTD returns of 128.12 percent based on its current price of $65,950 per coin, according to Coindesk data. Meanwhile, Ethereum rose by 542.71 percent this year and traded at $4,729.31 at the time of writing.
A bullish outlook for the crypto has been fueling its rise this year. Investors see SOL as one of the top competitors against ETH, as the Ethereum blockchain grapples with issues such as congestion and high gas fees.
“Solana is the leading Ethereum competitor,” Bitwise Asset Management chief investment officer Matt told CNBC. “I wouldn’t put all my chips on it, but I’m a big fan.”
“A lot of the fastest-growing applications of crypto technology have been built on Ethereum and rely on the Ethereum blockchain to function,” Hougan added. “If you’re investing in Solana, you’re betting that its technical sophistication will help it leapfrog Ethereum.”
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