2021 has been an excellent year for AVAX, the native token of the Avalanche platform. The price of this token has shown an upward trend since the beginning of the year. But in the second half of 2021, AVAX took off to reach an all-time high on November 21.
At $146.22 (as per CoinMarketCap) and with a circulating supply nearing 400 million tokens, AVAX made it to the top ten of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. So far, it has dropped to the 11th position. With this price hike, the AVAX token has increased its value by over 3,000% since the beginning of the year.
This surge followed the establishment of a partnership between Ava Labs and the consulting firm Deloitte. Ava Labs directly participates in the development of the Avalanche blockchain. This partnership is meant “to build more efficient disaster-relief platforms,” according to Emin Gün Sirer, founder and CEO of Ava Labs.
It will streamline the processes to aggregate and validate federal disaster claims with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
This development could not happen at a better moment for Avalanche. Many users have become frustrated with the rising cost of using the Ethereum (ETH) platform. Because of support for smart contracts, Avalanche has long been regarded as a potential competitor to Ethereum. Smart contracts are the building blocks of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Will Avalanche Overtake Ethereum?
After Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum is the most popular blockchain and most valuable coin by market cap in the world. However, Avalanche is advancing at a fast pace to be a solid competitor to the Ethereum platform. One of Avalanche’s goals is to conduct faster and cheaper transactions than Ethereum. Although the partnership with Deloitte isn’t transformative, it sends signals that the Avalanche blockchain is moving in the right direction. For the time being, it is unlikely that Ethereum will lose its position as the most popular platform for smart contracts.
Was Dogecoin Affected?
The AVAX price surge surprised some followers of the dog-themed coins Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB). Particularly, DOGE was in the 10th position of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. It was briefly surpassed by AVAX, which took over the 10th position with its recent all-time high. At the time of writing, DOGE is back in the 10th position, whereas AVAX is in the 11th. SHIB is in the 13th position.
Should You Invest in AVAX?
The meteoric rise of AVAX is not to be overlooked. Other well-established cryptocurrencies like Litecoin (LTC) have been losing value over the same period. Avalanche’s key to success has thrilled analysts these days. Price surges often attract traders eager to make a quick profit. But as with all cryptocurrencies, large price swings can occur at any moment.
So, research the market thoroughly before you invest in AVAX. If you decide to add this asset to your portfolio, you can use LetsExchange.io, an instant exchange that allows you to easily buy AVAX with BTC, ETH, and around 350 other cryptocurrencies.