Solana Flips MATIC to Reclaim Top 10: Is Dogecoin Next?

Now that Solana has flipped Polygon, could it finally catch back up to the world’s premiere doggy coin?

article-image

dCrypto/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Solana’s SOL has flipped one of its primary rivals, Polygon’s MATIC, to reclaim a spot in the top 10 market caps.

SOL’s valuation was more than triple that of MATIC’s leading around the time of the Terra debacle last May — $16.8 million to $5 billion.

But the FTX disaster crushed Solana. The native token for its layer-1 network collapsed upwards of 70% in the weeks following November’s crisis.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried had been one of the protocol’s loudest proponents (and biggest backers), with his venture capital dollars spread far and wide across Solana’s ecosystem. 

The market quickly rejected SOL and many other tokens in Bankman-Fried’s orbit once allegations of sweeping fraud came to light — while MATIC began to outperform the market significantly.

Polygon describes itself as a “sidechain solution” that assists Ethereum in running smoothly (read: helps it scale). When Solana flipped number-two dogcoin shiba inu (SHIB) in late January, the obvious question was whether MATIC was next. 

SOL did briefly eclipse MATIC around that time, for five days in total.

  • But it spent most of the time since valued some $2 billion lower. 
  • Solana now has the edge by about $123 million ($7.93 billion to $7.81 billion). 
  • Dogecoin (DOGE) is the next most valuable cryptocurrency at nearly $9.9 billion.
SOL is still about 40% below its valuation as the FTX scandal struck

Why has Solana flipped Polygon?

Granted, SOL is only worth about 1.5% more right now. And it could very well be that Polygon re-flips Solana again sometime soon.

But Solana has seen some interesting developments of late. Solana Saga, a branded Android phone filled with Web3 apps by default in the same vein as HTC’s Exodus range, is now available for public order. That’s exciting for Solana fans.

Helium, the crypto-powered incentivization system for ad-hoc wireless hotspots, also completed its migration to Solana last month. Its community voted to abandon its own blockchain network last September.

That’s not to say things aren’t buzzing in Polygon world, what with its major corporate NFT partnerships with the likes of Starbucks and DraftKings.

But a flippening is a flippening. 

Is Dogecoin next?


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).png

Research

Solana Mobile is a highly ambitious foray into the mobile consumer hardware market, seeking to open up a crypto-native distribution channel for mobile-first applications. The market for Solana Mobile devices has demonstrated a phenomenon whereby external market actors (e.g. Solana-native projects) continuously underwrite subsidies to Mobile consumers. The value of these subsidies, coming in the form of airdrops, trial programs, and exclusive NFT mints, have consistently covered the cost of the phone and generated positive returns for consumers. Given this trend in subsidies, the unit economics in the market for Mobile devices, and the initial growth rate and trajectory of sales, it should be expected that Solana mobile can clear 1M to 10M units over the coming years. As more devices circulate amongst users, Solana Mobile presents a promising venue for the emergence of killer-applications uniquely enabled by this mobile-first, crypto-native distribution channel.

article-image

Plus, breaking down Donald Trump’s shifting crypto stance

article-image

Markets are holding relatively steady despite the supply shock

article-image

Analysts are looking ahead to August, a historically volatile month made more interesting this year by the US presidential election

article-image

Plus, a look into Lighting Labs’ newest feature

article-image

Crypto’s Wild West era is over — it’s time to embrace regulation to secure the future of digital assets

article-image

Plus, Solana has now surpassed Ethereum in trailing 30-day decentralized exchange volume