Ethereum has been lagging during this year. However, with its biggest overhaul since 2022, Ethereum seems to have woken up. It looks like the Pectra upgrade blew some new life into the second-biggest project by market cap. Because of Pectra, Ethereum gas fees even dropped to 9 cents. Over the last 30 days, $ETH saw a 41% uptick and is now hovering between $2,400 and $2,700 again. There was even a 20% spike one day last week. Ethereum hadn’t seen such a spike in over four years.
So, it looks like something is cooking again at Ethereum. Does this mean that Ethereum can outperform its closest competitors? Solana and Sui are waiting on the sidelines. So, which altcoin between these three can do a 10x fastest?
The Case for Ethereum ($ETH)
The Pectra upgrade is the largest upgrade Ethereum has ever seen in its 10-year history. The last update before Pectra was Dencun in March 2024. However, the Pectra update included 11 EIPs. These are Ethereum Improvement Proposals that change or improve the network. It’s the largest upgrade Ethereum has ever had, to date. There will be more updates in 2026.
Source: Ethereum roadmap
Pectra should improve the user experience (UX). Thus, making Ethereum more user-friendly and efficient. For example, with the introduction of smart accounts. This means that your Ethereum account, or wallet, can temporarily access smart contracts. For example, it offers,
- Batch transactions. You can now swap, transfer, and mint an NFT with only one step. This reduces gas fees and offers a simpler workflow.
gPectra!
MetaMask Extension support for 7702 is live on @Ethereum Mainnet!
Thanks to smart accounts and batch transactions, users can benefit from fewer clicks and faster transactions. pic.twitter.com/7rdSpovYty
— MetaMask Developer (@MetaMaskDev) May 7, 2025
- Gas sponsorship. You don’t need to pay gas fees anymore or hold $ETH to execute transactions.
- Custom gas tokens. Devs can choose other ERC20 tokens that you pay gas fees with. For instance, with $USDC or other ERC20 tokens.
ETH just made your bank irrelevant.
Pectra’s today upgrade means your wallet can pay gas in ANY token, bundle transactions, and recover through Instagram.
No infinite approvals. No ETH-only transactions.
Solana shills now on suicide watch as their entire narrative collapses. pic.twitter.com/3ZRaN3m79j
— Crypto Sage (@Crypto__Sage__) May 7, 2025
- Alternative authentication. This introduces modern tech like passkeys and biometrics.
So, there are a few more features, but these are the most eye-catching ones.
Ethereum also optimized data availability for L2s by bundling transactions. This lowers transaction costs, and it improves L2 scalability.
5/ cheaper txs
pectra upgrades ethereum’s ability to handle data.
more blobs. better scaling for L2s. lower costs especially during high traffic.
pectra doesn’t just make ethereum bigger.
it makes it smoother, smarter, and mainstream-ready.
— Ethereum.org (@ethereum) May 6, 2025
That’s because of so-called blobs or Binary Large Objects. In a nutshell, they facilitate cheaper and more efficient transaction processing. So, the Dencun upgrade introduced blobs.
The Pectra upgrade doubled the blob count per block. It allows 6 to 9 blobs per block. The blob introduction reduced L2 costs by over 90%. Pectra increases the number of blobs per block. Thus, reducing costs even more. The next upgrade, Fusaka, increases the number of blobs even more, to 32 blobs or a max of 56.
The Case for Solana ($SOL)
Like Ethereum, Solana ($SOL) is a household name in crypto. It was the sweetheart of the last bull run, by performing a 171x. 2 That’s when it also got the ‘Ethereum killer’ tag attached to its protocol. But, in all fairness, I don’t see only 1 Ethereum killer. It will be a combination of protocols and other circumstances.
A detailed research report by @21Shares shows that #Solana is leading the way in terms of users, developer activity, and Web3 adoption. Ethereum is falling behind. But what makes the “Ethereum killer” so special?https://t.co/hW8I7PZMib
— Crypto Valley Journal (English) (@CVJournal_ch_EN) May 16, 2025
But, for starters, Solana held ‘Accelerate’ this week in New York City from 19th to 23rd May. That’s their yearly conference. It was exciting and there were plenty of news and updates from the Solana camp. THE place to be last week for all Solana fanboys and fangirls.
But here are some impressive stats. Messari just released their Q1 report on Solana. Here are some QoQ metrics.
State of @solana Q1
Key Update: Solana’s ecosystem shows resilience with DeFi growth and infrastructure upgrades, despite market volatility and mixed usage metrics.
QoQ Metrics
• Chain GDP20% to $1.2B
• Stablecoin market cap
• Average Daily DEX… https://t.co/I2mONxRXHv— Messari (@MessariCrypto) May 16, 2025
- Chain GDP is up by 20% to $1.2 billion. That’s higher than the annual GDP of Saint Kitts and Nevis, which stands at $1.13 billion.
- Their stablecoin market cap is up by 145.2% to $12.5 billion.
- The average daily DEX volume is up by 40.8% to $4.6 billion.
Solana showed resilience by growing the DeFi sector. Despite the current and recent market volatility, Solana keeps delivering infrastructure upgrades.
That also shows in the current $SOL price development. That’s on the up again. The $SOL price dropped after pump.fun came to an almost grinding halt. But it’s back on its feet, like a cat with 9 lives. Now $SOL won’t do another 171x. However, a target between $800 and $1,000 seems realistic. That’s a 5x to 6x.
#Solana $SOL above $200 is an instant buy, as it could be breaking out of this massive cup-and-handle pattern! pic.twitter.com/cE2XUSTGLJ
— Ali (@ali_charts) May 15, 2025
The Case for the Sui Network ($SUI)
Sui Network ($SUI) seems to be the current favorite altcoin during this bull run. At Altcoin Buzz, we surely like Sui a lot. So far, $SUI managed to have the strongest comebacks after each dip. It looks like $SUI’s run hasn’t ended yet. There seems to be much more leeway in its price development possible.
At the beginning of this month, Sui had its Basecamp in Dubai on 1st and 2nd May. That is their yearly conference. That was a massive success, and we saw lots of news coming out of Basecamp. You can read up on this in our article. I also compared Solana and Sui, where to put $1,000 if you had it, in a recent video. Or how about this video on 4 Sui ecosystem projects. Check out the links.
Sui isn’t following the narrative.
We’re writing it together, in Dubai.
Sui Basecamp is where it begins, join us now
https://t.co/meleFfI9tT pic.twitter.com/CEeiSAAMDf
— Sui (@SuiNetwork) April 30, 2025
Even with the Cetus hack affecting the Sui ecosystem right now, we expect this effect to be temporary. And for some great projects like Navi and Suilend that are down since the hack, it’s a buying opportunity.
There’s also some good cooperation going on between Solana and Sui. Sui has integrated into two Solana wallets, Backpack and Phantom. You can read about that here. And the Claynosaurz blue-chip NFT collection on Solana starts a new collection on Sui. That’s the Popkins Unleashed collection.
Popkins Unleashed is a collection of 25K NFTs on Sui.
Touch grass later. This on-chain mint is too fun to miss.
pic.twitter.com/BU3x7JlJY4
— Claynosaurz (@Claynosaurz) May 8, 2025
Although Sui has been labeled as the Solana killer, it seems that they would rather opt to work together. The better solution in my humble opinion.
There’s so much going on at Sui, it just keeps pumping out new updates all the time. And that’s a good thing. With the current $SUI price around $3.50, a potential target of $20 to $25 is possible. That’s a 5x to 6x.
Which Altcoin Will Do a 10x First? Ethereum ($ETH), Solana ($SOL), or Sui ($SUI)?
So, here are three cases to see if Ethereum can outperform Solana or Sui. Although Ethereum had a great comeback, I don’t see this happening. IF $ETH can make it up to $10k, that would be sensational or amazing. Take your pick. However, that’s a 4x from here. Solana can do a 5x to 6x from where it is right now. Looking at all 3 market caps, I see the most potential for $SUI.
It doesn’t look like there is a clear winner, and there doesn’t have to be. All three projects should have a good bull run. I can see the biggest returns coming from Sui.
However, both Solana and Ethereum should also do well. What do you think about these three and whether Ethereum can outperform the other two? Let me know in the comments and join our discussions on X and Discord.
Disclaimer
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