Bitcoin’s current market cap of about $900 billion is a testament to its uptrend and staying power, but it would not be surprising to see other coins put up a better performance in the future. Read on for a look at the top two cryptos that might outpace BTC in 2022 and beyond.
1. Ethereum
Ethereum’s (CRYPTO:ETH) ether coin ranks as the second-biggest cryptocurrency, a market value of around $450 billion. Although its market capitalization is just half of what Bitcoin’s is, ether significantly outperformed the market leader for the year, posting an increase of over 400%.
While Bitcoin is still the top dog by a large margin, there are some signs that Ethereum may be on track to take the crown. This possible event has been dubbed “the flippening,” and it might represent a major shift in the crypto market. Investor dollars have started to head toward coins that are supported by service and application features as opposed to coins that merely function as speculative investment vehicles and digital currencies.
Ethereum’s blockchain network has provided the foundation that thousands of other cryptos and blockchain applications are created on top of, and its top position in the blockchain-services ecosystem has helped its coin post amazing gains. The ether coin is now up over 56,700% during the last five years, surpassing Bitcoin by a large margin in that stretch. That momentum is likely to continue in 2022.
2. Solana
Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) had surprising gains in 2021. Its SOL coin skyrocketed over 10,000%, thanks to speculative momentum and Solana’s rise as a launching ground for some blockchain-based applications. Like ETH, Solana’s blockchain serves as a foundation for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Solana is a direct competitor to ETH and has a notable advantage: fast transaction-processing capacity. While ETH’s blockchain is able to process transactions at a rate of about 13 each second, the Solana network is able to handle as many as 50,000 each second. Solana’s potential has pushed the market cap for its token to around $54 billion — making it the fifth-biggest crypto — although its value is still dwarfed by Bitcoin and Ethereum.
If demand for DeFi applications keeps growing, Solana’s transaction-processing capabilities might help it attract more users and push the value of its token significantly higher than current levels. With its much smaller size and fast-expanding application network, Solana might be primed to again outperform Bitcoin in 2022.
Author: Scott Dowdy
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