‘Ethereum Killers’ Managed to ‘Kill’ Themselves in 2022 Rather Than Beat the Smart Contract Economy’s Heavyweight Champ
At the end of 2021, a myriad of people thought a handful of smart contract platform tokens, often referred to as ‘Ethereum killers,’ would flip the second-largest crypto asset in terms of market capitalization in 2022. As 2022 comes to an end, statistics show that none of the so-called ‘Ethereum killers’ have surpassed the leading smart contract platform token, and a number of these tokens have lost considerable amounts of value during the crypto winter. Ethereum Outperformed Its Competitors in terms of Market Cap, Decentralized Finance Action, and Non-Fungible Token Sales
On Dec. 23, 2021, the top smart contract platform coins held an overall valuation of around $823 billion and at that time, ethereum’s (ETH) market capitalization represented 59.42% of the aggregate. Today, on Dec. 30, 2022, the crypto economy’s top smart contract platform coins are valued at $239 billion, and ETH’s market cap is roughly $144 billion. Data indicates that ETH’s market cap equates to 60.25% of the aggregate value of all the top smart contract platform tokens listed today.
Last year, when the smart contract platform coin economy was a lot more valuable, many people thought ETH could get ‘flipped’ by a bunch of ‘Ethereum killers.’ Roughly a year ago, the publication Forkast published an editorial called “The Top Five Ethereum Killers,” and it included tokens like BNB, solana (SOL), cardano (ADA), avalanche (AVAX), and polkadot (DOT). While some of these coins were top ten contenders in Dec. 2021, only BNB and ADA remain, and Polygon (MATIC) recently entered the top ten standings. Statistics from defillama.com shows Ethereum (ETH) dominated the decentralized finance (defi) industry in 2022. Cryptoslam.io metrics show Ethereum (ETH) outpaced every other smart contract chain that produces non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in 2022. Ethereum also joined its competition in terms of a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm after the successful completion of The Merge on Sept. 15, 2022.
On Dec. 24, 2021, BNB was exchanging hands for $547.12 per unit, and it was the second largest smart contract platform coin at the time. Today, it still is the second-largest smart contract platform token, but the digital currency’s value has dropped 55.19% from the $547 price point recorded in Dec. 2021. Last year, solana (SOL) was the third largest smart contract platform token and over a year ago, it was trading for $189.43 per unit at the end of Dec. 2021. Today, SOL holds the seventh-largest smart contract coin market cap and SOL holds the 19th-largest capitalization in the entire crypto economy. Solana was once called an ‘Ethereum killer’ on a regular basis in 2021, and Solana supporters thought SOL could flip ETH in 2022. SOL, however, has dealt with a lot of criticism about the project’s associations with FTX and co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. SOL has lost 96.2% from the crypto asset’s all-time high and it was once the fifth-largest coin on Dec. 23, 2021. On Dec. 30, 2022, SOL is struggling to maintain the 19th largest crypto market cap position.
Metrics show the smart contract coin SOL has lost 94.81% of its U.S. dollar value since Dec. 23, 2021. Cardano (ADA) was the fourth-largest smart contract asset and on Dec. 23, 2021, and ADA was trading for $1.48 per unit. ADA also was the seventh-largest market cap in the entire crypto economy. Today, on Dec. 30, 2022, cardano is trading for $0.24 per coin, and it’s moved down to the ninth largest market valuation. On Dec. 23, 2021, Terra’s LUNA was the fifth largest smart contract coin at the time, and LUNA (now called LUNC) was trading for $93.24 per coin. LUNA was also the ninth-largest market cap in the entire crypto-economy during the last month of 2021. When Terra’s stablecoin terrausd (UST) depegged from its $1 parity during the first week of May 2022, the blockchain’s native token managed to lose 100% of its value. Last year, LUNA was trading for $93.24 per coin on Dec. 23, 2021, and today the crypto asset, which is now referred to as luna classic (LUNC), is trading for far less than a U.S. penny per unit.
LUNA’s price has been completely obliterated, and it is now down to $0.000140 per unit on Dec. 30, 2022. Polkadot (DOT) was the sixth largest smart contract token; today, it’s moved up to the fifth position. However, last year DOT was the tenth largest crypto market cap, but DOT is now in the 13th largest position. At the time, DOT was trading for $29.39 per unit on Dec. 23, 2021, but today, DOT is down 85.30% and trading for $4.32 per coin. Avalanche (AVAX) was the seventh largest smart contract coin but today, AVAX now resides in the eighth position. On Dec. 23, 2021, AVAX exchanged hands for $121.88 per coin and on Dec. 30, 2022, it’s down to $10.83 per unit.
Lastly, polygon was the seventh largest smart contract coin last year but today, its now in the fourth largest top smart contract token position. Furthermore, polygon (MATIC) was in the 14th largest position overall in Dec. 2021 and today it has managed to enter the tenth position. MATIC was trading for $2.67 per coin last year and today, it’s down to $0.75 per unit, which is a loss of around 71.91%. While none of the so-called ‘Ethereum killers’ managed to knock ETH down a notch, ETH has lost a bit of dominance since Dec. 23, 2021. At that time, ETH dominance was around 19.5% and today, the second-leading crypto asset’s dominance is down to 17.4%. Tags in this story Altcoin performances, Altcoins, Avalanche (AVAX), bnb, cardano (ADA), crypto economy, decentralized finance, DeFi, Dominance, ETH dominance, Ethereum, ethereum killers, flipped, FTX associations, Market Cap, nft, NFTs, polkadot (DOT), Polygon (MATIC), sbf, Smart Contract Coin dominance, smart contract coins, smart contract platform coin, Solana (SOL), Terra, terra (LUNA), Terra collapse, UST depeg
What do you think about the so-called ‘Ethereum killers’ and their market performances in 2022? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below. Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today. The Stablecoin Economy Shed $28 Billion in 2022 After a Handful of Tokens Lost Their $1 Peg ALTCOINS | 2 days ago Privacy Coins Take a Beating This Year Losing Over $6 Billion, Anonymity Takes a Back Seat to Defi, NFTs ALTCOINS | 6 days ago
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