Could Ethereum Be The No.1 Cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and remains the biggest in terms of market capitalization, however, some market experts now believe that Ethereum (Ether) with its recent surge could one day overtake the number one spot.

Ethereum will continue to outperform Bitcoin, said Nigel Green the head of a financial institution, as per a recent report by Dow Jones’s MarketWatch.

The analysis is made on the basis that although Bitcoin surged to new all-time highs earlier this year, its year-to-date gains are near 57%, while Ethereum is up by about 320% since the beginning of 2021.

What this means is that the demand for Ethereum has been much higher, despite the increasing interest in Bitcoin shown by many financial institutions and investors and the backing of billionaire Elon Musk.

This could also be supported by plans to go through with major upgrades to the Ether network.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said last month that he owns the cryptocurrency, during an event hosted by the Crypto Council on Innovation, which helped Ethereum increase its gains back then.

Musk remains one of the biggest crypto assets supporters who publicly advocate for digital currencies as the future of money, in contrast to the views expressed by many investors, economists, academics, and market experts who view cryptocurrencies as a speculation vehicle.

But Musk, as well as Mark Cuban, are even bigger supporters of Dogecoin, which remains low in value but has achieved high gains, despite the fact that it started as a joke in 2013.

In other crypto news, a recent report by CNBC showed that it is becoming less likely that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon approve Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Fears over fraud and volatility are said to be the biggest reasons holding back a move in this direction, despite increased demand.

The President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, recently criticized cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin, saying that what he saw in crypto assets so far is 95% fraud, hype, noise, and confusion.

The Fed official said that he was more optimistic about crypto and Bitcoin five or six years ago, but no longer is.

Kashkari went on to say that currencies like Bitcoin do not solve any problems are mostly used in funding illicit activities like drugs and prostitution, noting that there are thousands of these garbage coins that have been created.