Didn’t get in on Solana? Two potential rivals to keep an eye on in 2024
Solana (SOL) emerged as a standout cryptocurrency in the recent market cycle, captivating both retail and institutional investors with its scalability and transaction efficiency. As we look to the second half of 2024, Finbold has identified two promising competitors to Solana worth considering.
SOL experienced a staggering 19,873% surge in value in 2021, followed by a notable recovery from the 2022 market downturn. During the previous bull market, Solana skyrocketed from $1 to $260 in under a year. It later reached $8 to $204 in just 18 months and currently trades at $140 per token.
Solana has positioned itself as a formidable rival to Ethereum (ETH), the leading player in Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi). One of its key advantages is a significantly higher throughput, measured in transactions per second (TPS), along with faster confirmation times and lower fees.
Now, two competitors to Solana have quietly been building high-throughput networks to meet similar demands. These two cryptocurrencies boast highly scalable, efficient, decentralized, and secure tech stacks.
Meet the contenders: MultiversX (EGLD) and Radix (XRD), both betting on a future powered by “sharding.”
Sharding is a technique that allows large systems to scale through the distribution of data across multiple shards. In 2018, Ethereum’s creator, Vitalik Buterin, highlighted sharding and proof of stake as efficiency-driving attributes for future blockchains.
Radix creator Dan Hughes detailed the benefits of sharding in his extensive essay, “Why Sharding?” According to Hughes, his 12 years of experimentation and development in blockchain architectures have consistently pointed to sharding as a crucial element.
It’s worth noting that Radix does not yet have sharding implemented in its mainnet, but the blockchain is currently undergoing testing with promising results. Additionally, Radix emphasizes atomic composability for all transactions, which ensures a seamless user experience across different shards.
Recent tests conducted by Dan Hughes suggest that the Radix network will be capable of handling over 200,000 swaps per second. Swaps are more complex transactions that typically achieve lower throughput than standard TPS. The testnet confirmed an average swap confirmation time of 3.75 seconds using 32 shards.
As for the current market prices, XRD is priced at $0.29, slightly below its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) price. It has experienced a 28% decline year-to-date and boasts a market capitalization of $300 million, representing a capitalization 216 times lower than Solana’s.
Investing in both EGLD and XRD carries inherent risks, despite their promising technology. Investors should exercise caution and conduct thorough due diligence before making any financial decisions, as these low-cap cryptocurrencies could still experience negative performances.
Disclaimer: The content provided here should not be taken as investment advice. Investing involves speculation, and your capital is at risk.