Polkadot’s DOT token is now the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.
As the crypto market rally continues, DOT has surpassed Ripple XRP in terms of market cap, according to data from analytics portal Coingecko. 
This follows on from a 26% gain over the past 24 hours.
The DOT token skyrocketed from an intraday low of just under $11 to hit a record high of $14.80, before edging down slightly to $14.45 at the time of writing.  
As reported by CoinGecko, the price move pushed Polkadot’s market cap to $13.7 billion.
In contrast, XRP has only gained 3.7% over the last 24 hours, Cointelegraph reports, which has been insufficient to take the token above the $0.30 mark. Its market cap is currently just under DOT’s at $13.5 billion.
Furthermore, as per statistics from Polkadot’s own platform, it is estimated that its market cap is even higher at $14.8 billion, using a circulation figure of just over one billion tokens.
Messari crypto statistics also show DOT to have topped XRP with a difference in market cap of $3 billion.
Polkadot is a multi-chain protocol featuring several so-called ‘parachains’ and works on its own tech known as ‘Substrate’, a blockchain framework.
The token has been named the latest ‘Ethereum killer’ as it is capable of processing thousands of transactions per second.
Indeed, it has been suggested that Polkadot could replace Ethereum’s dominance. The token captured the attention of several digital asset investors when DeFi surged last summer.
The majority of DeFi projects are built on the Ethereum blockchain, the second-largest, which is seen as a “world computer” because of its versatility and programmability, reports Yahoo Finance.
However, some projects opted for alternatives to Ethereum for enhanced scalability and end-user experience, and Polkadot was one of the more popular options.