Solana is majorly affected by the FTX meltdown.
SOL is experiencing a significant correction and falling out of the top ten.
Most affected by the FTX meltdown.
The market capitalization of Ethereum's competitor (ETH) plummeted shortly after the announcement of the insolvency of Sam Bankman-(SBF) Fried's companies.
Why did that happen?
SBF has always been a strong supporter of the altcoin. As a result, his ventures made significant investments not only in Solana but also in cryptocurrency tokens. SBF, for example, acquired $1.2 billion in SOL tokens through Alameda.
Furthermore, the trading firm allegedly owned $1.15 billion in Solana and was accused of selling its altcoin holdings in order to prevent the crash of FTT, FTX's token.
These factors all contributed to SOL experiencing a significant correction and falling out of the top ten. In this sense, the question is whether it is Cardano's time to shine. Will the altcoin emerge as the "Ethereum Killer"?
Differences between Cardano & Solana
While both platforms are designed to improve the smart contracts space, there are some differences between Cardano and Solana.
Solana was designed to make it simpler to create decentralized applications (dApps). As a result, it was designed to improve scalability by combining a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus with a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.
Cardano, on the other hand, was designed to be a payment alternative in areas where access to the banking system is extremely limited. Aside from being a smart contract platform with low fees and quick transactions, the altcoin is notable for its research-based development and offering staking that does not lock users' ADA.
While SOL uses Rust for network development, ADA uses Plutus, which was inspired by Haskell.
Which "Ethereum Killer" is the best?
The debate over Solana and Cardano's potential to overtake Ethereum is not new. However, for both altcoins, that reality is still a long way off.
Ethereum remains the market leader in smart contracts, with significantly higher NFT volume and total blocked value (TVL) in DeFi than its competitors. In this sense, it is possible to say that, before competing directly with ETH, the major altcoins on the market compete with each other.
As per reports, Solana's TVL dropped 54% between November 8 and November 21. Cardano's, on the other hand, fell 22% during the same time period.
Despite the fact that TVL is calculated on top of volatile assets and that the cryptocurrency market has experienced a significant correction since the mentioned date, Cardano outperformed Solana.
Aside from FTX's bankruptcy, Cardano has the advantage of having a network that never goes down. Although the ADA team has been accused of delaying deliveries, the cryptocurrency has proven to be resilient among Ethereum's competitors, even if its prices are not been the most appealing since its peak in 2021.
The collapse of a major Solana backer was precisely what the market needed for the cryptocurrency, which has experienced eight network outages since its inception, to be sidelined, at least until this chaos is resolved.
Despite being a few steps ahead of its rival, Cardano's network has yet to reach its usage limit. As a result, the altcoin must withstand the test of time in order to compete with Ethereum.
