Ethereum Rises to More Than 50% of Bitcoin’s Market Cap
Ethereum’s market cap has now reached nearly $20 billion, rising to above 50% of bitcoin’s market cap with an all-time high of 54%, while eth’s trading volumes are now higher than bitcoin’s for the first time ever.
The digital currency has taken this space by storm, rising from almost nothing less than two years ago, to now lead on many fronts. Certainly in innovation and developers interest, but also adoption by household brands, the number of projects, the security of its blockchain, and more.
The platform has created its own ecosystem through token ICOs which some suggest may act as an alternative to advertising, may create new business models, and may disrupt the Venture Capitalist business, continuing to get rid of middlemen.
While its smart contracts might even disrupt Uber as Toyota partners with a number of start-ups, including ethereum based Oaken Innovations, to provide a method for car sharing and leasing based on a public blockchain in preparation for a self-driving future.
Due to the breadth of its applications, eth’s ecosystem is different from any other public blockchain, providing us the first art related blockchain summit, Ethereal, where talks of disrupting music, movies, gaming, intermingled with talks of a fourth industrial revolution.
So the currency keeps racing ahead, eyeing that first position, with some suggesting it may overtake bitcoin’s market cap by the end of the year, while others wonder just how high bitcoin’s market cap will be when it does overtake it.
While yet some others wonder whether it will do so in a complementary manner whereby bitcoin benefits too by its price rising albeit more slowly than eth, or in a more drastic manner as some race to exit.
No one quite knows with some suggesting eth and btc are complementary with the increased adoption of one brushing off to the other, in what may be a non-zero sum race. While some see them as in direct competition, complaining eth is eating btc’s lunch.
Because the platform is a superset. It can do everything bitcoin can and can do it better, while also being able to do many things bitcoin can’t by being Turing complete and by having smart contracts which can allow the platform to have a bitcoin token built on top of it.
So it is rising in market share, grabbing nearly 25% of all digital currencies, while bitcoin’s share has plunged to near 45% as attention moves elsewhere. To the new modern blockchain, which can transfer value anywhere across the globe in 15 seconds, as opposed to bitcoin’s last century real confirmation times of days due to delays, and 10 minutes on average during its better times.
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