Ethereum is building on its history of 500% gains, and crossing the $4000 mark in terms of coin price.
It’s also catching up to the world’s largest bank – with a market capitalization of $470 billion, Ethereum now rivals the market cap of J.P. Morgan at $488 billion, making those comparing crypto to traditional banking take notice.
Sebastian Sinclair points out at Coindesk today that Ethereum’s rise could also have to do with the ability to use crypto in moreecological ways, where Bitcoin has come under fire due to the energy resources required to mine it.
“Additional excitement has come from the Ethereum blockchain’s plan to shift toward a ‘proof-of-stake’ consensus mechanism – how transactions across the network are confirmed – that theoretically will be less energy-hungry and more scalable than the current ‘proof-of-work’ system, which is similar to what the Bitcoin blockchain uses,” Sinclair writes.
Bullishness is also affecting options, where Deribit trades an Ethereum contract with a strike price of $50,000, and as Sinclair notes, backers indicate there’s “nothing frothy” about this move.
For a long time, Ethereum has been seen as the runner-up to Bitcoin, but for many years it hid in Bitcoin’s shadow. Now, Bitcoin has exploded to the tune of nearly $60,000 per coin and stuck there, while Ethereum seems to be having a similar rally. It wasn’t too long ago that Ethereum coin prices were counted in the hundreds; now they’re counted in the thousands.
There’s also the “smart contract revolution” – although entities like Binance are developing their own rival cryptocurrencies and blockchain contract systems, Ethereum has seemingly entrenched itself as one of the original smart contract handling blockchains. Proponents also note Ethereum’s role of support for NFTs, participation on platforms like Coinbase, and Ethereum uses in the gaming industry.
Does all of this make Ethereum the coin to back? You decide.
