Experienced blockchain investors are well aware of the fact that Bitcoin is the undisputed trend-setter of the crypto ecosystem. This week has proven it yet again: the bullish action of the BTC price has caused the prices of many alternative cryptocurrencies to rally. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting altcoin developments from the past week.
Polkadot Price Surges Following the Announcement of Parachain Functionality
Polkadot (DOT) has been the best performing of the top 10 largest crypto assets over the past 7 days. While other major cryptocurrencies have appreciated in price by 5% on average, the Polkadot price has increased by an impressive 16.6%.
The main reason for the bullish DOT rally is the recent announcement that the Polkadot network is now technologically ready to support parachain functionality. Parachains will be able to massively increase the cross-chain interoperability of the Polkadot ecosystem, and they will immensely expand the DOT network, turning it from a single blockchain into a vast network of mutually interconnected but independent chains.
Unfortunately, the exact date of the launch of the first DOT parachain is still unknown. Some investors have even voiced concern that the parachain announcement might be used to pump the DOT price, and expected a steep decline when the initial euphoria fades away. However, these fears seem unsubstantiated for now, as the market has reacted very well to the news about upcoming Polkadot parachain functionality.
Solana Gets Listed on eToro, but It Still Doesn’t Help the SOL Price
This week, Solana (SOL) has been listed on eToro - one of the largest and most popular social trading apps in the world, which allows millions of people to invest not only in cryptocurrencies, but also in stocks, commodities, currencies and ETFs. In theory, this should introduce Solana to a wide audience of investors. In practice however, listing Solana on eToro wasn’t enough to give a boost to the bearish SOL price action.
Out of the top 10 largest coins by market capitalization, only three decreased in price over the past week, and Solana has been one of them, together with Cardano (ADA) and Dogecoin (DOGE). The price of SOL has decreased by 1.92%, which caused Solana to be surpassed by Ripple (XRP), and to fall down to the 7th place on the list.
The current situation with the SOL price doesn’t look optimistic, however many Solana enthusiasts are convinced that it’s just a temporary setback, and that the Solana price is looking for a major breakout.
Dogecoin Versus Shiba Inu: Who Will Win the Battle of Meme Coins?
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) are obviously very similar to each other. Both of them are meme cryptocurrencies with no use cases and no intrinsic value, and they are backed by nothing more than memes posted on Twitter and celebrity endorsements. It’s becoming clear that these two coins are in direct competition to each other, as the focus of the fans of meme currencies can be used to pump only one coin at a time.
Currently, it looks like SHIB is growing in power while DOGE is rapidly losing popularity. A quick look at the price performance of both these assets over the past week greatly favors Shiba Inu over Dogecoin: while the DOGE price has decreased by 2.92%, the SHIB price has increased by over 25%, which makes it one of the best performing cryptocurrencies of the past 7 days out of all major coins and tokens,
However, Dogecoin is still the 10th largest cryptocurrency on the market, and Shiba Inu has just become the 20th. The market cap of DOGE is over three times as big as the market cap of SHIB, so if Shiba Inu will really replace Dogecoin, it’s unlikely that it will happen in the near future.
STX Becomes the Best Performing Crypto of the Week
Stacks (STX) is a relatively unknown altcoin, but it gained the attention of crypto investors by becoming the best performing major asset of the past week. The price of the STX token has increased by an astonishing 55.06%, which allowed Stacks to become 54th largest coin by market capitalization.
Stacks is a layer-1 blockchain protocol intended to bring smart contracts and DeFi functionality to the Bitcoin network. This value proposition is very ambitious and might be revolutionary if it ever actually gets implemented in practice. But can Stacks really become one of the most important projects in the ecosystem? At this point, it’s still too soon to tell.