What happened
Altcoins Solana (SOL +0.00%), Cosmos (ATOM +3.64%), and Algorand (ALGO 0.59%) are up a respective 3.9%, 24.75%, and 46.77% in the past 24 hours, as of 2:30 p.m. EDT. They are now trading at $186.17, $26.61, and $2.44 apiece, respectively. Yesterday, regulatory scrutiny surrounding influencers promoting risky altcoins had led to a broad sell-off in the cryptocurrency market, causing significant levels of market volatility when mixed in with new project developments.
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So what
Solana had the greatest level of variance, with prices actually surging to $215 per token at 10:19 a.m. EDT before falling back down to $184.77 as of 3:23 p.m. EDT. Earlier today, J.P. Morgan issued a stark warning to altcoins, namely Solana, over record levels of investor mania. Solana is a popular decentralized finance (DeFi) token that traded as low as $2 at the beginning of the year.
As for Cosmos, on Sept. 8, internet of blockchain and decentralized application (dapp) platform Axelar joined hands with decentralized exchange Pangolin. The move would enable the latter to access assets from the Cosmos blockchain and others. Before then, the network had expanded to creating DeFi ecosystems and forming cross-chain bridges with other blockchains.
Meanwhile, money is pouring into Algorand after El Salvador announced it would develop blockchain infrastructure using its network earlier this week. On Sept. 7, the country became the first in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Soon afterward, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and McDonald's in the country all began accepting the digital currency. So investors are clearly banking that El Salvador's partnership with Algorand could lead to greater utilization for the token. What's more, Algorand is currently backed by famous seed-money start-up accelerator Y Combinator.
Now what
With respective market caps of $6 billion and $12.4 billion, Cosmos and Algorand may seem overvalued, but there are some fundamentals backing those prices. One cannot say the same for Solana. Even though it has around 340 projects in development, not all of them have reached the commercialization phase. That's compared to nearly 3,000 dapps already available on the Ethereum blockchain. Meanwhile, Solana's market cap has surged to $54 billion due to investor euphoria. So it's best to take profits on SOL while staying on the lookout for developments from ATOM and ALGO.
