Solana price performance YTD eclipses BTC, ETH; emerges as the largest decentralized PoS network

• Solana price has risen by more than 141% since the beginning of 2023, while Bitcoin and other top altcoins have gained less than 65%.
• At the same time, Solana has emerged as the most decentralized chain, surpassing Ethereum, Polygon and others.
• While Ethereum as a chain has significantly more validators, the distributed staking on Solana has made it the most efficient PoS chain.

Solana price has managed to surprise investors with a stellar performance in the past nine months. The altcoin has not only surpassed every other major cryptocurrency in the world but also noted exceptional growth as a blockchain. This has resulted in Solana beating out Ethereum to become the most decentralized network.

Solana price takes the lead

Solana price has emerged as the best-performing cryptocurrency among the top 20 by market capitalization since the beginning of the year. Trading at a price of $23 at the time of writing, the altcoin has observed an increase of 141% from $10, the opening price on January 1, 2023.

To put this into perspective, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple (XRP), Cardano and every other major cryptocurrency has fared below par. Of these assets, the most growth was noted by BTC, which is only 65% year-to-date.

Solana price performance year-to-date

However, the performance of Solana has been subliminal since peaking in July at $27. After declining by nearly 35.5%, SOL slipped to $17 but has since recovered by 29%. While Solana still stands almost 20% below the 2023 highs, it could likely make it back to the top, given the price movement over the past few weeks, as well as the performance of the network since the beginning of the year.

Solana is the best PoS chain

While the concept of Proof-of-Stake was pioneered by Ethereum, Solana has emerged as the one to make the best use of it. According to the Validator Health Report, the blockchain has eclipsed other major PoS players, namely Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, etc., to take the spot of the largest proof-of-stake networks by node count.

Not only this, Solana’s Nakamoto Coefficient of 31 is far above 27 and 25 of Avalanche and Ethereum, respectively. This coefficient is a measure of the minimum number of validators needed to agree to prevent a blockchain from operating correctly. The higher the coefficient is, the more decentralized a network is.

Solana network performance 

Thus, Solana, as of September 2023, is the most decentralized network in the world. Such network development helps attract more retail and institutional investors as well as developers, fueling the blockchain's expansion. In the end, this would continue to improve the price performance of the native token (SOL).

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