Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies of the year. Its price has soared by nearly 15,000% since the beginning of the year, outpacing Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) (which is up by around 500%) and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) (up by around 95%).
It also recently surpassed Cardano to become the fifth-most popular cryptocurrency, with a market cap of roughly $73 billion.
Currently, Solana is priced at just under $240 per token. But with all of its potential, it could be on track to see rapid growth. Could it reach $1,000 within the next few years? It depends.
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Where Solana shines
In many ways, Solana is similar to Ethereum. Solana is a smart-contract platform that allows developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) on the blockchain. It currently hosts over 400 projects, ranging from decentralized finance (DeFi) to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and more.
Solana is much faster than Ethereum, however, which gives it an advantage over its larger competitor. Solana is capable of processing more than 50,000 transactions per second, while Ethereum can only handle around 15 to 45 transactions per second.
Ethereum is in the process of upgrading its blockchain, and once Ethereum 2.0 is fully rolled out sometime next year, it should experience significantly faster transaction times. However, it's uncertain when that transition will be completed, and there could be roadblocks along the way.
Solana also has lower transaction fees than Ethereum, making it a more affordable and user-friendly option -- particularly when it comes to its NFT marketplace. Although Ethereum is still the biggest player in the NFT space, congestion and high fees make it more difficult for users to buy and sell NFTs. Solana could solve this problem, making it a more efficient NFT marketplace than Ethereum.
Can Solana continue growing?
Solana has experienced phenomenal growth, and according to some predictions, its price could reach $1,000 by around 2027.
Whether that will actually happen, though, is anyone's guess. The cryptocurrency market can be incredibly volatile, and all cryptocurrencies are still highly speculative at this point. If you're considering investing in Solana, the best you can do is weigh its advantages and disadvantages against its competitors to gauge how likely it is that it will succeed over time.
While Solana does have plenty of strengths, one of its biggest weaknesses is that it simply doesn't have the same track record or name recognition as its competitors. While it is gaining traction, its market cap of roughly $73 billion is nowhere near Ethereum at $538 billion or Bitcoin at just over $1 trillion.
If Ethereum is able to solve its issues regarding slow transaction times and high fees with its Ethereum 2.0 update next year, Solana may lose its biggest competitive advantage. Also, with new cryptocurrencies being developed by the day, there's a chance a new competitor could outshine Solana in the future.
Solana is one of the stronger cryptocurrencies to come out of 2021, but whether it has any staying power is still uncertain. It's impossible to say exactly how far Solana can go, but with its many promising features, it could be a real competitor in the cryptocurrency market.
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Katie Brockman owns shares of Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
