It's starting to feel a lot like 2021 again, at least for cryptocurrency investors. The broad-based market rally in digital assets is continuing, with Solana (SOL 4.11%), Avalanche (AVAX 7.38%), and Cardano (ADA 4.77%) among today's biggest winners. As of 2:45 p.m. ET, these three tokens have surged 5%, 11.3%, and 5.7% respectively since 4 p.m. ET yesterday.
These moves come as the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, continues to march higher, recently breaking through the $110,000 level. Thus, this market rally can certainly be perceived as one that's not only top-down (Solana, Avalanche, and Cardano are all top-15 tokens by market capitalization), but it's pervasive as well, with tokens of varying sizes also outperforming equities and other risk assets right now.
With that said, let's dive into some of the token-specific catalysts taking these three cryptos higher today.
Key partnerships and network development
For investors in these top-tier crypto networks, fundamentals matter. Not in the conventional sense, as is the case with stocks -- crypto networks like Solana, Avalanche, and Cardano don't necessarily have revenue, earnings, and cash flow for valuation purposes. But there are key growth metrics for investors looking to place a value on the ecosystems they're interested in, from daily active users, to wallets holding these tokens, to overall transaction activity.
Image source: Getty Images.
Solana, Avalanche, and Cardano have seen strong growth over the years on these key metrics, driven in part by the willingness of the developer teams behind the scenes to work with outside companies and industries to grow their reach. Solana's recent partnership with R3, a U.K. developer of blockchain technology for a range of traditional financial institutions, is a great example of such a growth strategy. This partnership, announced today, could provide a meaningful growth engine for Solana investors over the long term.
Avalance and Cardano have seen their own similar catalysts form in recent days as well. For Avalanche, a move from FIFA to team up with the leading decentralized blockchain ecosystem does appear to have spurred additional investor interest in the highly scalable network. The overarching goal with this partnership appears to be to build on top of FIFA's previous moves into the non-fungible token (NFT) market, targeting Avalanche as a key partner in this endeavor.
And for Cardano, investors appear to be bracing for some news around partnerships and network development from the team's upcoming representation at the GITEX Europe 2025 conference in Berlin this week. We'll have to see what sort of major announcements come out of this event, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some material updates over the next day or two on partnerships/development work that's ongoing.
Can this rally continue?
It's been quite a few weeks for crypto investors, with many seeing their portfolios push back into the green. This rally is certainly enticing for investors who believe that risk-on sentiment will continue, though we are seeing some macro deterioration in the bond and equity markets investors will certainly be watching closely.
That said, these three projects are among the best large-scale options for investors looking for blockchain exposure. For those bullish on this sector, these are three tokens I'd think about holding, particularly if new highs are in order across the board.
