solana price bull

Crypto newcomer Solana soars to 8th most valuable digital asset

Despite being an 18-month-old cryptocurrency, Solana’s market capitalisation skyrocketed to US$30 billion and settled as the 8th most valuable digital coin in the crypto sphere. On August 31, the coin hit its all-time high of US$124, almost doubling its value of US$72 a week before.

Although it wasn’t able to maintain its highest value, Solana (SOL) is still valued at around US$109 as of September 1. The rapid increase of the crypto coin’s value allowed it to surpass Dogecoin on the 7th slot for a few hours before falling and settling into 8th place. 

Since the coin’s inception in March 2020, its value has increased 15,871% more according to the report published by Business Insider. This is a massive surge compared to its rival DeFi cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Cardano. 

Solana, the Ethereum killer

Ethereum’s native coin, Ether (ETH) is still in the second top-most position of highly valued cryptocurrencies according to market capitalisation. Currently, the digital asset’s value rose 32.83% in August but it lags behind Solana’s 254.93% single-month price bull as reported by Business Insider India. 

This data indicates that Solana, alongside Cardano, is one of the promising candidates that can surpass Ethereum’s longstanding success in the number 2 position. Moreover, the blockchain’s claim of faster transaction speed at 50,000 transactions per second can drastically improve its position in the crypto sphere. 

Solana is among the blockchains that support decentralised finance (DeFi) projects and smart contracts. This allowed the network to cut out intermediaries and financial institutions from crypto transactions in recent months. 

Moreover, its smart contracts and decentralised apps (dApps) protocols allowed Solana to venture into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that is currently dominating the digital art scene. 

On August 12, Solana released its Degenerate Ape Academy, a platform that sold whimsical collectables of cartoon ape NFT artworks. 10 thousand of these artworks were sold within 10 minutes of the release according to a report by Euro News. 

This drove the price of SOL to increase and continue its rally in the past month boosted by the NFT bull at around US$900 million. 

Aside from the NFT market, traditional investment firms including Osprey Funds and Grayscale Investments showed interest in the network. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received an application form for the Osprey Solana Fund in August. 

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