During the cryptocurrency rush of the previous 2 years, several cryptocurrencies gained notoriety as potential “Ethereum killers”.
These currencies became known as “Ethereum Killers”, a.k.a a cryptocurrency that will eventually dethrone Ethereum as the world’s second-largest crypto.
Tokens like Polkadot, Solana, and Avalanche became respectable projects, with relatively efficient blockchains with high-selling NFT marketplaces.
However, none of these aforementioned tokens were able to perform better than its main competitor, during the bear market of 2022.
Throughout the year, the average return on each Ethereum competitor from the all-time high is around -80%.
Polkadot
Despite offering one of the best infrastructure alternatives in the market, Polkadot was not able to compete closely with Ethereum.
The project offers some unique market capabilities, like Polkadot’s interoperability, meaning that it allows for the transfer of any sort of data or asset across blockchains, not only tokens.
However, these interesting features were not enough to keep Polkadot’s price stable throughout the year. DOT price went downhill, going from $29,71 in February, to today being worth a measly $5,45.
This means that Polkadot lost close to 90% of its value since the first quarter.
Solana
Unquestionably one of the most successful “Ethereum Killers”, the Solana protocol differs itself by allowing the development of a decentralized app, or DApp, by deploying smart contracts into its blockchain. Solana attempts to increase scalability by combining a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus with the blockchain’s underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.
However, this blockchain has a serious reliability problem. Throughout 2022, Solana experienced several major outages that left users unable to access their assets.
On top of that, Solana was one of the most affected cryptocurrencies by the FTX collapse. So much so that SOL lost 66% of its value in the very week that the exchange went bankrupt.
In January, SOL was valued at around $177,89 — Fast forwarding 11 months, Solana lost nearly 93% of its worth, today trading at around $13,50 according to Coinmarketcap.
How Does Ethereum Compare To ETH Killers in 2022?
That’s not to say that Ethereum itself had a positive year, at least when it comes to the worth of Ether.
The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was the highlight of one of the most important moments in the year.
On September 15th, Ethereum successfully transitioned consensus mechanisms, abandoning proof-of-work in order to become a more sustainable blockchain, under proof-of-stake.
Two months later, Ethereum finally became a deflationary asset, after the fee-burning mechanism implemented in August 2021 resulted in 2.72 million ETH being burned.
However, the crypto winter, topped with the recurrent SEC pressure also affected Ether. The asset lost 73% of its value in 2022, a substantial amount, but still nearly 20% better than “Ethereum killers”.
