Three Altcoins to explore | Solana Leads the Race of Layer1 Blockchain With Massive Altcoin Rally

2021/09/07 10:46:05

After an initial drop to $46,500 early in the week, Bitcoin recovered nicely and broke the $51,000 resistance line and almost touched on $52,000. A great recovery by Bitcoin, after dipping into $46,000 territory a few times in the last couple of weeks. Ethereum and some of the altcoins even managed to outperform Bitcoin during last week. Ethereum very briefly broke the $4,000 mark, starting the weeks off at $3,162. A tremendous performance and as a result, the market sentiment is very positive again. All systems are go for the bull run to continue.

The trendiest topic last week was the Solana ecosystem. Solana is a web-scale blockchain that solves the blockchain trilemma. Its network is fast and scalable but doesn’t compromise on security or its decentralization. This makes it a key competitor to the Ethereum network.

With the combined consensus mechanisms of proof-of-stake (PoS) and proof-of-history (PoH), throughput and scalability have been improved. Solana can process 50,000 transactions per second, with 700,000 TPS in the future as an option. In comparison, Ethereum has a 15 to 45 TPS rate.

Solana is a layer 1 blockchain protocol with an average gas fee of $0.00025 per transaction. This is 60 thousand times cheaper compared to Ethereum gas fees. Solana’s ecosystem consists of well over 330 projects and counting.

SOL, Solana’s token saw an outstanding performance last week with a price increase from $98 to $142. Last month, Solana soared almost 300% and since early 2021 over 7000%. One recent partnership was with Alameda Research and investments have been made by Raydium, One Block, and Solidity Ventures. Furthermore, the Solana ecosystem is also backed by Sam Bankman-Fried who happens to be Alameda’s CEO.

During last week, the market saw some key Solana eco-related projects and their native tokens brought to center stage. Meet Serum (SRM), Mango Markets (MNGO), and Star Atlas (ATLAS), projects and tokens to keep an eye on.

For today, we have picked three Solana eco-related KuCoin crypto gems to take a deep dive into: LINK, REN, and GRT.

Notice: KuCoin does not provide financial advice. Please do your own risk assessment when deciding how to invest in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

Chainlink (LINK)

Source: cointelegraph

Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network, and provides external data feeds, events, and payment methods in a secure way to smart contracts on a blockchain. It provides the critical off-chain information to on-chain smart contracts. This information is needed to become the dominant form of digital agreement. Chainlink does this in a trustworthy and secure way. Because it is agnostic, it can work with other blockchains. Chainlink has many trusted partners and in the data processing field, it is a leading player. LINK is the only currency that can be used for all key network operations.

Last week, LINK performed well with its rate jumping from $25 at the beginning of the week, to almost $35 at the end of the week. Chainlink is the most popular oracle for nearly all projects and is the most incorporated project in the crypto ecosystem. Combining this with Solana’s current success and the bullish market sentiment, this can be a well worthy investment opportunity.

Trade LINK and 400+ other altcoins on KuCoin

Ren (REN)

Source: phemex

Ren facilitates the transfer of cryptocurrencies between different blockchains platforms. This means that you can lock BTC or any other crypto coin into Ren software. In return, you can mint the ERC20 token RenBTC (or another cryptocurrency) in a 1:1 ratio on Ethereum. This new ERC20 token can now be used for various DeFi functions such as trading, borrowing, and lending. RenVM makes this possible, Ren’s virtual machine mainnet. REN, the native token, functions as a link between those running nodes which power RenVM, these nodes are known as Darknodes. Ren aims to develop the interoperability and make entry and investment into DeFi easier. It plans to do so by taking away obstacles involved in liquidity between blockchains. Ren is formerly known as Republic Protocol.

During the past seven days, REN’s price has risen by 28%, going from $0.66 to $0.8575. With the integration of Ren’s RenVM with Solana in June 2021, Ren is profiting from Solana’s popularity. It looks like a good moment to invest in REN, with the market gearing up for a bull run.

Trade REN and 400+ other altcoins on KuCoin

The Graph (GRT)

Source: the coin republic

The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying data for networks like Ethereum and IPFS. The protocol enquires and collects data without a third party having to interact, in a secure and trustless manner. Besides being fast, secure, and reliable, anyone can build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs. This allows two apps to communicate with each other, and the subgraph acts as an intermediary. The Graph currently supports indexing data from Ethereum, IPFS and POA, with more networks coming soon.

As of today, over 3,000 subgraphs have been deployed. Among the thousands of developers for dApps are Uniswap, Synthetix, Aragon, AAVE, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, DAOstack, Decentraland and many others.

GRT is integrated at all levels of The Graph’s ecosystem. Last week, GRT went from $0.89 to $1.04. The week started in the red but ended with a strong green sentiment. GRT is still far away from its $2.71 ATH in February 2021, however, after sideways action from May onwards, GRT seems to make a recovery since the start of August. This combined with Solana’s rise may see a steady increase in price for GRT and may be the right opportunity to invest in GRT, to join and enjoy the current bull run that is about to start.

Trade GRT and 400+ other altcoins on KuCoin

In Conclusion

Although Solana has many things going for itself at this moment, the project still has a lot to prove. Can it maintain its current momentum? It is quite possible, but there are also many competitors that want a seat near the Ethereum throne. Once the long awaited Ethereum 2.0 is launched, it can be determined if Ethereum stays on top of the pile. In the meantime, Solana is a very strong contender to rise together with Ethereum to new highs.