Key Takeaways:
- Solana’s three-week surge nears the $100 mark and briefly overtakes BNB, securing 4th place in the crypto chart.
- Experts predict Solana will secure the fourth spot by surpassing $100 and sustaining its valuation.
- Optimism, Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling solution, surpassed $5 billion in total value locked (TVL) on its mainnet.
The latest rally in the cryptocurrency market has been led by Solana (SOL) and Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling blockchain Optimism (OP), which have surged by 45% and 23%, respectively, since Monday.
On Friday, SOL closed in on the much-awaited $100 mark as hype for the blockchain’s speedy transactions, cheap fees, and pool of high-valued meme tokens continued for the third week running.
Token metrics show that Solana gained the most demand among on-chain traders, with trading volumes and network fees generated on the blockchain crossing those of Ethereum (ETH) – the industry leader for smart contract-based blockchains.
The total value locked (TVL) on Solana-powered decentralized applications (DApps) rose from November’s $400 billion to a whopping $1.3 billion this month – a level previously observed in July 2022.
This is in stark contrast to the events from the same time last year when SOL hit a long-term low of $8 following the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.
Solana Briefly Overtakes BNB to Claim 4th in Market Capitalization
Solana and Binance’s native token BNB have been engaged in a closely contested race for 4th place among the cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization.
Earlier today, SOL reached $99.50 on Binance, losing out on the $100 milestone by just $0.50. In the process, Solana surpassed BNB for a brief period but came down to fifth after failing to hold on to the position.
However, market analysts say that if Solana manages to stay above $100, then it can firmly secure the much-coveted fourth place in the crypto market capitalization chart.
Currently, the market capitalization of SOL is $41.44 billion, while BNB’s market capitalization is $41.75 billion.
The interesting fact here is that Solana has never managed to flip the market capitalization of BNB. SOL was placed fourth after attaining its all-time high market cap of $78 billion in November 2021. Yet, BNB’s market capitalization remained 25% higher at $106 billion.
At the time of writing, Solana (SOL) is trading at $96.18 – up 5.4% in the last 24 hours.
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Optimism (OP) Surpasses $5 Billion TVL Milestone, Indicating Widespread Adoption
OP, the native token of layer-2 solution Optimism, surged by an impressive 23% after surpassing a total value locked (TVL) of $5 billion. The achievement marked a significant milestone for the Ethereum scaling network.
It is also a testament to growing investor confidence in the blockchain that has addressed Ethereum’s long-standing issues of speed, scalability, and stability.
Developed by Ethereum engineers, the Optimism mainnet adopted the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) architecture that underpins all Ethereum-based applications. This enables interoperability, which allows DApps available on Ethereum to also work on the OP Mainnet at a fraction of the cost.
As of press time, the TVL in the OP Mainnet stands at $5.31 billion, which is a remarkable 16.76% increase. This also resulted in the market value of OP experiencing a robust growth of 24.94% over the past 24 hours to hit $2.87.
OP’s current valuation is an outstanding 200% increase year-to-date. The blockchain also saw a notable uptick in trading volume, which has surged by 196.05% within the past 24 hours to reach $590 million.
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