Ethereum Rival Surges Over 4,400% This Year, Enters Top 10 List of Largest Crypto Assets by Market Cap

One Ethereum (ETH) rival has seen massive growth throughout 2021, weathering multiple large corrections in the general crypto market and now claims a seat in the top ten digital assets by market cap. 

Smart contract platform and Ethereum competitor Avalanche (AVAX) opened the year at $3.27 and hit an all-time high of $147.42 on November 21st, representing an increase of 4,408%.

The price of AVAX has slightly retraced and is now trading at $112.83 at time of writing. 

Even after the retracement, AVAX has climbed the rankings and is now the ninth-largest crypto asset with a market valuation of $28.12 billion. It sits next to XRP, which has a market cap of $39.13 billion, and is closely followed by Terra (LUNA), which ranks number 10 with a $27.46 billion valuation. 

Avalanche aims to be a faster and cheaper alternative to leading smart contracts platform Ethereum. Amid growing demand for the altcoin, crypto exchange Kraken recently rolled out support for AVAX with trading set to start on December 21st. The exchange says AVAX will be tradable against the US dollar (USD) and euro (EUR). 

Earlier this week, crypto custody firm BitGo also announced that it is giving its institutional clients access to AVAX and assets launched natively on Avalanche’s C-Chain as demand for high-speed decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms rises. 

AVAX is currently up 3,325% since the start of the year and over 43% in the last seven days. Comparatively, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 62% since January 1st and is down 3% in the last week.

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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Li Wa