In a remarkable turn of events, data shows that Solana (SOL) is on the verge of overtaking XRP in its longstanding territory as the third-largest altcoin.
Per data from CoinMarketCap, Solana has gained 13.88% in the last 24 hours, putting its cumulative seven-day growth at 17.83%. Effectively, SOL now exchanges hands at $71.77 at the time of writing.
On the other hand, XRP had negative growth over the past day, although its cumulative one-week performance wields at a growth rate of 4.87%. While XRP trades at $0.6408, its market valuation has fallen by 1.35% to $34.44 billion in the last 24 hours.
Also, its trading volume took a substantial 19% hit, with market participants trading $1.6 billion XRP in the past day.
Meanwhile, Solana is swiftly earning the interest that XRP lost, as SOL demonstrated positive growth across the metrics where XRP faced declines.
In particular, with Solana over $70, its crypto market share now stands at $30.58 billion. This figure represents a 13.59% surge from the value recorded in the previous day, per CoinMarketCap data.
Furthermore, Solana’s 24-hour trading volume has surged by 80.41% to reach $4,108,165,810. Intriguingly, this volume is nearly three times that of XRP’s trading volume during the same period.
Solana XRP market | CoinMarketCap
Just three months ago, Solana held the ninth position among the most prominent cryptocurrencies, trailing behind digital assets like Dogecoin, Cardano, and the stablecoin USDC. However, Solana has beaten Dogecoin, Cardano, and USDC, with XRP the next in line to be knocked out.
Debate Around SOL Surpassing XRP
The potential for Solana to outrank XRP has sparked debate in the XRP community. While some claim the situation means nothing significant, others believe it could impact the confidence of XRP investors.
XRP YouTuber Moon Lambo argued that another coin outperforming XRP implies no inherent flaw in choosing XRP as an investment. Lambo noted he personally would harbor no negative sentiments in such a case as XRP would have its day someday.
“Eventually, XRP will run too, and then it will be proven that none of the fear was necessary. Everyone will eventually see that it never mattered,” Lambo submitted.
If this happens I think it will emotionally devastate some $XRP holders. Which is silly. Because obviously another coin in the moment performing better than $XRP does not mean that $XRP is bad or that there’s something wrong with it.
I personally won’t have negative feel feels…
— Moon Lambo (@MoonLamboio) December 8, 2023
Factor Behind Solana Uptrend
Notably, SOL has grown from $19.609 in September to its current position, marking a growth rate exceeding 266%. Meanwhile, through the same 90-day period, XRP only grew 26% to its current position of around $0.64.
According to a researcher at the well-known on-chain analytics firm Messari, SOL’s astronomic movement follows a pivotal network upgrade on the Solana ecosystem.
In a recent tweet, the researcher congratulated the Solana developers for implementing the numerous upgrades that address issues previously impacting Solana.
“Between improving liveness and improving liquidity, the case for Solana has arguably never been stronger than it is today,” the Messari researcher remarked.
