Fantom (CRYPTO: FTM) is under the radar right now, but probably not for long. The cryptocurrency had an incredible run-up last year. The coin sold for $ 0,02 a year ago. It is now trading at $ 3 per coin.
Fantom is jumping because it's a level 1 protocol with super-fast speeds, like Solana (CRYPTO: SOL). In 2021, these two coins skyrocketed in value at 14.000% and 11.000%, respectively. Fantom is much smaller with a market cap of $ 7 billion versus Solana's $ 43 billion. I think part of this discrepancy is because Solana, unlike Fantom, can be bought and sold on Coinbase (NASDAQ shares: COIN), the largest cryptocurrency exchange. (You can buy the coin on another exchange, Gemini).
I expect the smaller coin to overtake Solana once again in 2022. That's why you might want to own the Fantom coin.
1. It may be the fastest blockchain out there
Cryptocurrency markets went crazy over Ethereum's competitors (CRYPTO: ETH) last year. Ethereum is the leading platform for the crypto universe. But interest in cryptocurrencies is skyrocketing, and the Ethereum network is creaking under strain. “Gas tariffs” (the cost of validating a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain) hit $ 300 at one point. In comparison, a transaction on Fantom or Solana costs a fraction of a penny.
Why are taxes so cheap? The speed. Solana averages 50.000 transactions per second, compared to Ethereum's 14 per second. Fantom isn't as fast as Solana, but it's still way ahead of Ethereum; in a 2018 test, its blockchain processed 25.000 transactions per second. But Fantom has a pretty solid claim to be the fastest blockchain when looking at the time to finalize. This is probably the most important statistic, as this is when a transaction was fully validated on the chain. Fantom's finalization time is about one second, against Solana's 13 seconds and Ethereum's more than a minute.
Fantom is also rocking the total number of transactions on the blockchain. A year ago, Fantom had an average of 4.000 transactions per day. Now the network averages 750.000 per day. This is an incredible growth rate. Fantom is already fifth in number of transactions, and has surpassed much larger coins such as Avalanche (CRYPTO: AVAX).
2. It is compatible with Solana and Ethereum
One of the challenges in the blockchain universe is compatibility. It can be difficult to move a virtual wallet from one blockchain to another. So in the blockchain universe - such as Silicon Valley - many of these blockchain networks are enemies. They are all competing and they want to win. But they must also play well and work together.
Fantom, like most of Ethereum's competitors, is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This makes it easier for Ethereum experienced engineers to develop decentralized applications (dApps) for the Fantom blockchain. And it makes it easy for dApps on the Ethereum blockchain to migrate to the Fantom blockchain to save money.
Solana is a kind of maverick as it is not compatible with Ethereum. This puts its blockchain outside the Ethereum universe. But what's fascinating is that Fantom is also in the Solana ecosystem. This flexibility is a strong point. Regardless of who comes out on top, Ethereum or Solana, Fantom should be fine as it is compatible with both systems.
