Solana has hit fresh yearly highs during an ongoing altcoin rally, rising almost 18% to $65.65, the day after the CEO of ARK Invest Cathie Wood, praised the network for its cost-effectiveness and efficiency.

Wood said the Solana network was a key infrastructure player in the broader blockchain ecosystem during an interview on Wednesday with CNBC, adding it was doing a “really good job” within the recent market conditions.

The CEO also said the Solana network was quicker and more efficient than the Ethereum network, Cointelegraph reports.

“Ether was faster and cheaper than Bitcoin in the day — that’s how we got Ether. Solana is even faster and cost-effective than Ether.”

Speaking on CNBC Pro Talks, she added that she “really does like Solana” yet also cited its downtime “is much higher than it is for Ethereum.”

“People are willing to put up with that because maybe the transaction sizes are not as large or for some reason are not as important, they just want speed and cost as their top priority. Each one of [the networks] is going to have a place,” she commented.

Wood also said Ethereum and Solana were significant additions to the blockchain ecosystem during the CNBC interview, defining them as crucial infrastructure layers which are capable of more real-world applications than Bitcoin.

Although the wider crypto market is currently on an upward trajectory, the gains registered by Solana have considerably overtaken gains made by other major digital currencies, of more than 197% over the last month. 

Yet over the same period, the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ether, have risen 32% and 28% respectively.

Solana is up around 550% in 2023 and has been one of the year’s best performing currencies. 

As it stands, Solana is trading at just over $66, according to TradingView data.

Moreover, Wood also discussed the current market anticipation for a series of pending spot Bitcoin ETF products, stating it is key for the focus to remain on Bitcoin’s significance as “the money revolution”, and not overly concentrate on short-term price action, the Cointelegraph report goes on to say.