Today, the fifth largest cryptocurrency, Solana (SOL), overtook popular payment service PayPal in terms of market capitalization. Following a 5.51% increase in SOL quotes over the past week, the token's price rose to $175.3, bringing its capitalization to over $83.56 billion. 

At the same time, PayPal is now collectively valued at $83.52 billion, according to Yahoo Finance. At first glance, therefore, Solana is indeed more expensive, in a purely figurative sense, than the largest electronic debit payment system, which was founded in 1998 with the participation of Elon Musk. 

However, it cannot be honestly stated that all Solana tokens in circulation are cumulatively more expensive than all PYPL shares. The fact is that, while both calculations involve multiplying price by quantity, the nature of the assets and the markets in which they trade have a significant impact on the interpretation and implications of their respective market capitalizations. 

The fact is that PayPal's stock is valued based on the company's future revenue potential and assets, while Solana's value is determined based on network utilization, token utility and market sentiment.

However, Solana's success cannot be denied, given that it is almost a year old. In fact, one of the most popular altcoins began its meteoric rise in mid-October last year, when the price of the SOL token rose 847.26% over the next 147 days after a long period of fluctuation between $17.89 and $30.36.