According to coinmarketcap, more than 5360 crypto-assets were present in the ecosystem at the time this article was written. There is no question, however, that Bitcoin and Ethereum have the most significant presence in space.
The comparison between these two digital assets is a never-ending debate, and the proponents of each space have their own set of strong arguments to back up their preferred virtual currency.
Now, according to Messari’s Ryan Watkins, Ethereum could take a step ahead of Bitcoin with its recent development.
The research analyst indicated that Ethereum’s daily average value has reached parity with Bitcoin, and is actually moving the same amount of money as Bitcoin. It’s an interesting bit of development because back in July 2019, Bitcoin transferred value close to $3.3 billion, while Ethereum moved capital close to $1 billion.
However, it is imperative to note that Ethereum has been able to punch above its weight against Bitcoin because of the unprecedented rise of stablecoins in Q1 2020.
Watkins indicated that despite the pandemic event, the first three months of 2020 were remarkable for stable assets. The collective market cap of all stablecoins crossed $8 billion and, surprisingly, the market cap added in 2019 was less than the figure added in the first three months of 2020.
For Ethereum, it was a disguised blessing as the largest altcoin platform was rapidly becoming the dominant platform to stablecoins issuance and, according to the Messari analyst, it was likely to increase with maturity over time.
At press time, over 75 percent of the total stablecoins were settled on Ethereum’s network and the asset could be beneficial in the future, with the current injection of liquidity. However, this pattern has been brewing since the start of 2019. USDT_ETH has radically overtaken control on Bitcoin’s Omni USDT, and now Tether was settling bulk of their USDT on Ethereum’s platform.
Additionally, 80 percent of the daily transfer value on Ethereum was accounted for by stable assets and they are relatively larger values on average than Bitcoin’s network.
A USD-backed stablecoin sustaining dominance?
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Although the development is likely to bring a definite joy to the Ethereum community, it is important to note that stablecoins were still backed with USD, which is a fiat currency.
At press time, USDT’s market was at $7 billion, which is still significantly less than the market cap of Ethereum and Bitcoin, USDT gaining bragging rights might not exactly be what the overall cryptocurrency would like to see in the future.
Ethereum was receiving a definite helping hand from these stablecoins at the moment, but in the long term, if USDT somehow surpasses ETH on market cap valuation, it will be a completely different ball-game at that time.
