During the third and fourth quarter of 2020, we witnessed a growing interest in cryptocurrencies from institutional investors and big capital. Still, all the attention of the investors and people was towards Bitcoin. According to some analysts, Ether is a more attractive asset, and it may become the world’s first cryptocurrency. Let us see why.
Ethereum is the most actively used blockchain. Programmer Vitalik Buterin introduced it in 2013. Development had crowdfunding in 2014, and the network went active on 30 July 2015, with 72 million coins pre-mined.
Ether increased by 1,200% since March 2020 low after the COVID-induced market crash. In comparison, Bitcoin has only boosted about 700%. Bitcoin price hit $40,000 while Ether reached $1,400.
However, it is interesting, which is more important for an investor: nice numbers and records of an asset from a high income?
Furthermore, it is essential to note that Ether’s market cap is five times less than the Bitcoin market volume.
Some analysts claim that Ether will continue to increase in 2021 and bring more profit to investors that the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
Even though Ethereum has serious competitors, for example, Polkadot, Tron, Cosmos Cardano, and Tezos, Vitalik Buterin’s cryptocurrency platform resumes being a leader in this direction.
Over $1 trillion worth of transactions were recorded on the Ethereum blockchain
Throughout 2020, the Ethereum blockchain had over $1 trillion worth of transactions. They surpass the transaction volume of payments giants like PayPal, which is has more than 350 million users. It has average volumes that do not generally reach $200 billion per quarter.
Additionally, each transaction generates network fees paid in ETH. As the network’s growth rates are still high, we can confidently anticipate the continuation of the bullish trend of ETH. Furthermore, interest in cryptocurrency, the number of active wallets, transactions on the network, and the average transaction size rises.
Bitcoin is a leader in the cryptocurrency market. However, Ethereum remains the young decentralized finance industry leader. Furthermore, highly popular in the summer of 2020, Defi lending and staking projects resume rising, attracting new investments.
Furthermore, the total value locked in decentralized finance since the beginning of 2020 has increased by almost 3,300%, from $687 million to $23.2 billion.
The turmoil in the Defi market nearly eroded institutional confidence in blockchain’s potential in the financial sector in the summer of the past year. However, public companies continue to show interest in the new asset type.