A Cryptocurrency Is Skyrocketing In Defiance Of Bitcoin-Led Selloff, Outperforming Dogecoin, Cardano

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) traded in the red at press time on Sunday night amid uncertainty whether Tesla Inc TSLA Elon Musk hinted at dumping the automaker’s cryptocurrency holdings but there is one coin that bucked the trend over the past week.

What Happened: Polygon (MATIC) has soared 69.63% over a seven-day trailing period leading up to press time. On a 24-hour trailing basis, MATIC traded 1.99% higher at $1.65.

Contrast this to BTC, which has fallen 22.82% in a seven-day period, and ETH which has declined 11.29%.

At press time, on a 24-hour trailing basis, BTC was down 4.48% to $45,398.65, while ETH traded lower by 9.2% at $3,440.47.

On Sunday, Musk may have signaled that Tesla could dump the remainder of its BTC holdings. The company disclosed in its first-quarter results that it sold $272 million of the cryptocurrency in the period after recording a purchase of $1.5 billion.

Why It Matters: The network powering MATIC hopes to resolve issues affecting Ethereum such as high “gas” fees needed for transactions and confirmations, as per the project’s website.

Recently, a number of Dogecoin (DOGE) lookalikes have emerged, which are further ratcheting up ETH network fees as they occupy block space on the latter's chain, MarketWatch reported. DOGE traded 7.35% lower at $0.49 at press time.

See Also: How to Buy Dogecoin (DOGE)
The coins allegedly congesting the Ethereum network include SHIBA INU (SHIB), Dogelon Mars (ELON), and Kishu Inu (KISHU), as per The Block’s Director of Research Larry Cermak.

I don't have the exact numbers on this but anecdotally these new Doge copycats are taking a shit ton of recent block space and causing gas spikes to 300+

1. KISHU
2. ELON
3. SHIH
4. CoShi
5. BHIBA

And many others. Gonna end really badly

— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) May 10, 2021

Coins that complement or compete with Ethereum have seen increased interest recently. Others that have risen include AAVE (AAVE) and Cardano (ADA) both up 25.21% and 11.72% on a seven-day period.

Read Next: Elon Musk Considers Idea Of Creating New Crypto If Dogecoin Can't Scale