Solana dethrones BNB, ranks fourth largest cryptocurrency with 100% monthly gains for SOL holders

• Solana price rallied nearly 50% in the past week, replacing BNB as the fourth largest asset by market capitalization. 
• SOL outperformed BTC and ETH in trade volume on one of the largest crypto exchanges, Coinbase. 
• SOL price crossed $100 on December 23, hitting the $109.28 level on Sunday. 

Solana sustained its recent gains over the weekend, crossing the psychological barrier of $100. SOL outperformed the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and ranked fourth, as seen in CoinGecko data. 

Also read: Optimism price could suffer a correction as on-chain metrics turn bearish

Solana ranks fourth in market capitalization

Solana, Ethereum alternative and the fourth largest asset by market capitalization rallied past BNB and XRP, with its increasing price. SOL price climbed 50% in the past week and 100% in the last month, the asset’s market capitalization hit $47 billion. 

SOL price hit a new local peak of $118 on December 24. The Ethereum killer asset now rivals or surpasses Ethereum across decentralized exchange volumes, NFT volumes, active addresses, transaction count, stablecoin transfers. However, Ethereum supporters argue that Solana is not decentralized.

Ryan Watkins, co-founder of Syncracy Capital argues that Solana has nearly 40% the amount of nodes as Ethereum, they’re only five times more expensive to run. Watkins believes Solana’s transaction cost and throughput is likely worth the trade off.

Watkins argues that Solana needs to continue decentralizing its developer ecosystem, while the asset develops other aspects of its chain.

SOL price is $110.24 at the time of writing on Binance.