Ethereum is Somehow Performing Much Better than Bitcoin
Ethereum (ETH) has long been behind Bitcoin (BTC), the number one cryptocurrency, but is now stepping into the center stage.
ETH price went to as high as 10% during the past 24-hour trading period. Also, it adds gains of nearly 300% so far this year, though it remains far behind the Bitcoin price. However, price is not everything with the number of BTC tokens wrapped into Ethereum doubling in August.
Bitcoin can undergo wrapping into the Ethereum blockchain with a number of Ethereum-based tokens. For example, WBTC, which boosted in popularity since May. In some periods in August, more BTC was wrapped into Ethereum than created by Bitcoin miners.
Bitcoin wrapped onto the ETH blockchain using WBTC, backed by 1:1 by BTC. It was also minted by locking up BTC on the Bitcoin blockchain. They believed that by wrapping BTC onto Ethereum and making it compatible with smart contracts, users could unlock tools like lending, liquidity provision, and decentralized exchanges.
Glassnode analysts noted in its weekly newsletter, “This presents an interesting quandary for Bitcoin.”
Also, it mentioned that it obviously has more utility after converting into the Ethereum blockchain. With that, the underlying value ostensibly comes from the 68 terawatt-hours of power that go into securing the BTC blockchain every year.
Glassnode even asks how much Bitcoin needs to migrate into Ethereum before the BTC blockchain’s necessity began coming to question. It stated, “And if this were to occur, what would back the value of Bitcoin if not the massive amounts of energy that go into maintaining its existence?”
The Price
The Ethereum price is surging, pushed by the decentralized finance (DeFi) craze that currently sweeps the Bitcoin and crypto world. Moreover, DeFi is the thought that they could use cryptocurrency technology to recreate traditional financial instruments like loans and insurance.
Simon Peters is the investment platform eToro’s Bitcoin and crypto analyst. He explains that after several challenging weeks for a lot of crypto-assets, the growth in the price of Ethereum indicates that it is one of the main alts leading the market.
He said, “I agree with Glassnode’s reports that Bitcoin is no longer investor’s first steps into crypto.”
Peters added that many new investors might enter the market going directly into Ethereum or DeFi protocols instead of choosing Bitcoin as their first or only crypto investment – like what happened in the 2017 crypto bull run.
Embracing Bitcoin and ETH
Meanwhile, the Vienna Stock Exchange or Wiener Börse became the third official regulated market worldwide to list Bitcoin products.
The exchange recently listed 21 Shares AG’s Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded products (ETPs), ‘ABTC,’ and ‘AETH,’ on September 1.
Wiener Börse’s head of development, Thomas Rainer, highlighted that the listing enables experienced investors to access the benefits that a stock market could offer to crypto traders. And this includes monitored, regulated, and transparent trading with real-time information and secure settlement through their regulated brokers.
In addition to boosting the institutional adoption of cryptocurrency, Singapore Exchange (SGX) revealed that it would list price indexes for Ethereum and Bitcoin in collaboration with U.K.-based crypto data firm CryptoCompare.
