Although Ethereum rose by 500 percent since the start of the year, three other cryptocurrencies outperformed it in the market with over 5,000 percent gains. Traders might want to invest in these cryptocurrencies before the year ends.
Standing behind Bitcoin, Ethereum is the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. It gains its wealth through smart contracts, an idea that revolutionized blockchain technology. For reference, smart contracts are tiny pieces of self-executing codes that operate decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.
Ethereum Problems and Other Issues
As the architect behind smart contracts and DeFi, Ethereum gained massive profits. Unfortunately, its success came with some drawbacks. Its networks became congested with users, and its systems lagged in performance. Many users complained about high transaction fees during a trade.
Taking advantage of these issues, developers launched newer, faster, and cheaper platforms based on Ethereum. Several of these markets ended up seeing dramatic prices rises as more fans invested in the cryptocurrency industry. Eventually, these "better" crypto coin got referred to as Ethereum killers.
Top 3 Ethereum Killers
According to The Ascent, there are over 41 different cryptocurrencies that outperformed Ethereum this year alone. Experts listed three notable ones that might continue to perform well in the coming months.
3. Polygon (Matic)
To solve Ethereum's underlying problems, a few developers proposed adding an extra processing layer on top of the existing blockchain. They later implemented it in a new cryptocurrency market called Polygon.
Polygon calls itself a "layer 2 solutions aggregator," which boosts Ethereum's slow performance. According to Coinbase, traders can deposit their ETH in Polygon smart contract, interact with it and later withdraw it back on the Ethereum main chain. Polygon is used to pay for the transaction fees and to participate in proof-of-stake consensus.
At the time of writing, Polygon is trading at $1.79 with a 27.88 percent increase over the last 24 hours. It features a 9,000 percent growth over since the start of the year.
2. Cardano (ADA)
Another notable Ethereum killer is Cardano, a market that implements peer reviews for each stage of its development. Because of its meticulous system, experts believe it might be the most stable cryptocurrency market in the long run.
It is also worth noting that Cardano invests in real-world partnerships for its markets. For example, Cardano formed a collaboration with the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia to store students' academic records on the blockchain, which further enhances its utility in the future.
At the time of writing, Cardano is trading at $1.6 with a .28 percent increase over the last 24 hours. It features a 1,000 percent growth since the start of the year.
1. Solana (SOL)
Last on this list is the cryptocurrency Solana and its amazing market growth. Up to date, it hosts more than 500 different projects on its platform, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and DeFi apps.
Solana typically processes over 50,000 transactions per second (TPS), and each transaction costs a fraction of a cent. In comparison, Ethereum only processes 15-45 TPS with costs that can reach over $100.
At the time of writing, Solana is trading at $204.06 with a 1.56 percent increase in the last 24 hours. It features an 11,000 percent growth since the start of the year.
However, be warned that cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile. Market values are subject to change, and these predictions do not guarantee 100 percent accuracy on future market performance.
