Top Cryptocurrency to Buy: Raoul Pal Backs Solana for 236% Gains

Raoul Pal, Real Vision CEO and billionaire venture capitalist, names Solana the top cryptocurrency to buy. He predicts 236% gains to $289 in 18 months, according to an AOL.com interview.

Solana trades at $85.73, up 0.7% today with a $49.3 billion market cap, per CoinGecko data as of October 10, 2024. Bitcoin stands at $75,807 with a $1,517.2 billion cap, up 0.8%. Ethereum hits $2,307.58 with a $278.4 billion cap. The Fear & Greed Index sits at 33, signaling fear, via Alternative.me.

Solana Captures VC Attention with Scalability Edge

Solana processes 65,000 transactions per second through proof-of-history consensus. This mechanism timestamps blocks faster than Ethereum's pre-sharding setup. Developers build DeFi and NFT protocols on Solana due to sub-cent fees and high throughput.

Raoul Pal highlights Solana's speed as key to mass adoption. "Solana solves the blockchain trilemma," Pal states in the AOL interview. Protocols like Jupiter aggregator and Raydium DEX dominate Solana's ecosystem. On-chain metrics show 25% quarter-over-quarter wallet growth, per Messari's Ryan Selkis in a September report.

Pal's $289 target from $85.73 implies rapid re-rating. Solana peaked at $260 in November 2021 amid NFT hype before the FTX fallout.

Solana Benchmarks Against Bitcoin and Ethereum

Bitcoin stores value with its 21 million supply cap and perfect uptime. Ethereum leads smart contracts post-Merge, processing 15 transactions per second natively.

• Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin (BTC) · Price (USD): 75,807 · 24h Change: +0.8% · Market Cap (USD B): 1,517.2
• Cryptocurrency: Ethereum (ETH) · Price (USD): 2,307.58 · 24h Change: +0.1% · Market Cap (USD B): 278.4
• Cryptocurrency: XRP · Price (USD): 1.43 · 24h Change: +0.7% · Market Cap (USD B): 88.1
• Cryptocurrency: Solana (SOL) · Price (USD): 85.73 · 24h Change: +0.7% · Market Cap (USD B): 49.3
• Cryptocurrency: BNB · Price (USD): 631.67 · 24h Change: +0.9% · Market Cap (USD B): 85.1

CoinGecko ranks Solana fourth by market cap. Solana surges in risk-on markets thanks to 2,500 TPS velocity. Ethereum layer-2s like Optimism compete on costs, while BNB benefits from Binance utility, notes Chris Burniske of Placeholder VC in a recent podcast.

Key Catalysts Drive Solana's 236% Gains Potential

Solana developer activity climbs 40% year-over-year, per Electric Capital's developer report. Drift lending and Kamino liquidity protocols attract $5 billion TVL, up 150% in six months via DeFiLlama.

Institutions enter post-2024 Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. VanEck files for a Solana ETF; BlackRock and Fidelity eye expansions, per Bloomberg filings. EU MiCA regulations offer stablecoin clarity, boosting Revolut and Coinbase on Solana.

Federal Reserve rate cuts since September boost risk assets. Solana shows 2.5x Bitcoin beta historically. Glassnode data shows whales accumulate 10 million SOL since August lows.

Retail investors flock back via Phantom wallet, which records one million daily active users.

Fear & Greed at 33 Signals Entry Point

Fear & Greed Index at 33 sparks dip-buying cycles. Solana plunged to $8 in December 2022 before a 1,000% rebound in 2023.

VC firms like Andreessen Horowitz support Solana amid volatility. Network uptime reaches 99.8% post-2023 fixes. Firedancer client upgrade from Jump Trading targets one million TPS.

Tokenized real-world assets via Ondo Finance onboard $500 million, drawing banks to Solana rails.

Playbook Positions Solana as Top Cryptocurrency to Buy

Investors purchase Solana on Coinbase, Kraken, or Binance. Stake SOL for seven% APY from fees via validators like Jito.

Track ETF approvals, which drove Ethereum 50% higher post-launch. Congestion risks linger, but rivals like Sui trail in TVL. Solana's Saga mobile phone broadens retail access.

Bitcoin dominance at 56% falls, favoring altcoins. Raoul Pal positions Solana as the top cryptocurrency to buy for 2025 leadership in high-throughput blockchains.