One Ethereum competitor has risen nearly 100% in the last week alone, breaking the $8 billion market cap mark and threatening to enter the top 20 crypto assets by market cap.
Near Protocol (NEAR) is a smart contract capable decentralized application (DApp) platform that strives to compete with Ethereum (ETH) or Polkdadot (DOT).
NEAR, the project’s native token, recently rallied to an all-time high at $16.39 after trading at $8.40 less than five days prior for a gain of 95%.
NEAR is used to pay for transaction fees and storage. It can also be staked by token holders who participate in achieving network consensus as transaction validators.
The Ethereum challenger’s rise joins a wave of surging layer-1 altcoins locking in sizeable gains while ETH maintains a comparatively modest price action.
Solana (SOL), the biggest Ethereum challenger, is up 8.7% over the last seven days and 15% from its 30-day low of $151.
Stablecoin-focused Terra (LUNA) is up a whopping 46% over the last seven days and an incredible 150% in the last 30 days. LUNA is currently the best performing altcoin in the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Also making waves is smart contract platform Avalanche (AVAX), which is up a modest 2% over the last seven days but still up a huge 46% in the last two weeks. AVAX ranks number 11 in terms of market capitalization.
Another layer-1 altcoin making sizeable moves is directed acyclic graph (DAG) based smart contract platform Fantom (FTM). FTM is up 46% over the last seven days, currently trading at $2.06. With 2021 almost at a close, FTM has gone up over 12,600% this year.
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