Ethereum just doesn’t know how to settle down. It’s been making new all-time highs on an almost daily basis for the last two weeks. Many in the crypto community were beginning to say Ethereum wasn’t going to grow and that investors should look elsewhere. But these people who doubted Ethereum’s potential have been quiet the last month as ETH’s market cap is now more than 1/3 the size of Bitcoin’s.
What has slowed Ethereum’s growth?
Critics of Ethereum do have some valid points though. ETH has always had an issues with scalability, high gas fees, and slow transaction times. And this is likely what stunted Ethereum in the first quarter of 2021. But while most of the market was seeing red all in April, ETH was slowly creeping up to almost double in price. While Bitcoin was the star of 2021, the second quarter of this year so far belongs to Ethereum.
While scalability issues have stunted Ethereum to some degree, this month has shown that regardless of it’s issues, Ethereum is still the number one network where other projects come to write their code on. The fact of the matter is, many other companies like Polkadot and Cardano which are like Ethereum, are not live yet. Ethereum is still a force in the market for this reason.
Why it will continue to grow
The Ether network will soon have a huge upgrade called Ethereum 2.0. This will be monumental if it solves the issues of gas fees and slow transaction times at it claims that it will solve. Think of it – if ETH is still continuing to climb in price before ETH 2.0 is released, what will happen when there are no more issues with gas fees and transaction times? Only bulishness most likely.
So, it looks like Ethereum isn’t going away any time soon. Billionaire Mark Cuban certainy doesn’t think so. According to a tweet he made yesterday, he believes DeFi and Ethereum are better than banks. While many complain about gas fees on ETH, you have to admit, Cuban is correct that institutions like banks have even more costs and fewer advantages. With Ethereum 2.0, ETH will only continue to leverage itself as a better alternative to mainstream finance.
Final thoughts
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is now a billionare in crypto according to a report from Etherscan. Etherescan is an analytics platform for Ethereum in case you weren’t aware. While Buterin isn’t the first crypto billionaire, he has set a record for being the youngest billionaire in crypto at 27 years old.
Many in the crypto community claim that ETH could soon flip Bitcoin and be the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. This would be monumental as Bitcoin has remained supreme up until now. If ETH does flip Bitcoin, it will change the way the public views cryptocurrency as most people are still unaware of what Ethereum is.
April 2021 has been one of the toughest months in crypto in a long time. Many have began asking if we’re now in a bear market – however, ETH clearly is showing us otherwise. If a company with such a huge market cap can double in one month, then what can alt coins do this summer?
This article is not financial advice. Please always do your own research before investing in crypto.
Aaron is passionate about blockchain and has been an investor in cryptocurrencies for the past years. He enjoys engaging with other people in the cryptocurrency community online, particularly on Telegram, and learning from experts.
