Will Ethereum overtake Bitcoin?
Ethereum was introduced in 2015 as an improvement over Bitcoin. The project was initially proposed in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, a 19-year-old Russian-Candian programmer. Buterin, who learned about Bitcoin from his dad, quickly understood the potential of blockchain as a technology and how to use it to power much more than just Bitcoin. Thus, Ethereum was born.
Today, nearly six years later, Ethereum is widely regarded as the most functional and feature-reach blockchain platform in existence. It enabled the implementation of self-executable code within transactions on the blockchain, which gave rise to "smart contracts" and is steadily paving the way for Decentralized Finances and an alternate economy.
However, as of writing this article, the value of 1 ETH stands at $2,593 compared to 1 BTC at $36,581. So if Ethereum is so much more functional than Bitcoin, why is it valued at less than a tenth of Bitcoin's price? Let's understand crypto prices in more detail and what drives them.
Will Ethereum overtake Bitcoin?
The two key things to look for when comparing crypto prices are - how much of the currency there is in circulation and the viability/ usefulness of the project. With Bitcoin, there is a hard cap of 21 million coins, which means that the total number of bitcoins that can ever be mined is 21 million. So far, we have mined about 18 million of them. There is no such cap when it comes to Ethereum. Currently, there are 116 million Ethereum in circulation, with five coins created for every block added.
What this means is that after the last Bitcoin is mined, it will eventually attain collectible status. Some already regard Bitcoin as digital gold - a non-inflationary asset that is verifiable finite.
Ethereum's price, on the other hand, is more functionality-oriented. The NFT and DeFi applications market center around Ethereum, and that's why experts such as Ian Balina, founder and CEO of Token Metrics, believe that the total market cap of ETH will surpass Bitcoin soon. According to Belina and other market trackers, Bitcoin had the first-mover advantage in cryptocurrencies, essentially the reason behind its astronomical value.
While Ethereum's potential is undeniable, its and all other altcoins' value is currently coupled to Bitcoin. The reason is that most investors still see all cryptocurrencies as a whole rather than separate projects with individual merits. However, some believe that that will end as the market matures. "The utility will ultimately trump a store-of-value asset," says John Wu, creator of Avalanche coin, referring to Ethereum. When? Probably not too soon.
Justin Chuh, a senior trader at Wave Financial, states that with time, "some assets will be able to decouple from the downside [of the market] simply because market participants won't care or see the current news having a long-term impact." This is when utilitarian coins like Ethereum will truly be able to overtake Bitcoin in market valuation.
Conclusion
To answer the question in the topic - maybe, most experts believe that Ethereum will overtake Bitcoin. Currently, Ethereum's market cap is around $300 billion, whereas Bitcoin's is $700 billion. This difference paints a more accurate picture of how potent these coins are.
It's unlikely, however, that 1 ETH will surpass the cost of 1 BTC, but it doesn't need to. Regardless, both these currencies are excellent investments and you can buy crypto on gate.io.
Learn more: Difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum.
