After a period in which Ethereum was "outperformed" by several altcoins, mainly Solana and other Layer-1, ETH recorded a sudden rise with +9% in a few hours, and this has rekindled investors' optimism about the ecosystem .
The movement was anxiously awaited by communities and analysts, surprised by Ethereum's performance below expectations so far, especially when compared to that of other assets.
Moreover, a general rise in the altcoin sector could not fail to also involve the main cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, and decidedly "bullish" news, such as the new purchases of BTC by Michael Saylor in recent days, seem to have contributed to increasing the possibilities of the a bullish movement occurs, causing ETH to end up in a price structure with a good risk/reward ratio.
The ETH/SOL rivalry
In itself, Ethereum's performance since the beginning of 2023 could not be said to be negative, having marked a +102% since last January, but the asset has been overshadowed by coins like Solana, which with its +951% in a year it traveled on decidedly different tracks.
Likewise, Solana's on-chain activity has led many to think that Ethereum's leadership in the market may be compromised, with transaction costs playing a critical role in investor activity. The NFT sector, from this point of view, seems to be the most representative litmus test, with transaction volumes on Solana higher than those recorded on Ethereum.
However, the ecosystem enjoys a much more developed system (and with equally promising development prospects), with Layer-2s, such as Optimism and Arbitrum, which are once again reaping the benefits of the scalability possibilities they offer.
