During the first half of 2021, the volume of trading increased ETH by more than 1,400% totaling $ 1.4 trillion, while in BTC grew by 489% to a total of $ 2.1 trillion.
ETH trading volume higher for the first time than BTC
Coinbase took data from 20 trading venues and issued a report stating that Ether’s trading volume had increased by 1,461% in the first six months of 2021. Its total volume climbed to $ 1.4 trillion, compared to $ 92 billion in the first half of 2020. BTC grew by 489% and its trading volume reached $ 2.1 trillion.
The Coinbase report states:
“Many of our largest institutional clients, including hedge funds, foundations and corporations, increased or added their first exposure to ETH in the first half because they believed that the asset had a long-term strength equal to BTC while playing a different role in their portfolios.”
The research also revealed total market capitalization figures for the first half of 2021. At the beginning of the year, the market started at $ 769 billion and rose to $ 2.4 trillion in May. At the end of the period, it fell to $ 1.4 trillion.
Most of BTC’s profits came during the first months of 2021 until April, when its price escalated toward ATH. On the contrary, Ether earned the most in May 2021, when it was worth more than $ 4,000.
Can ETH become the biggest cryptocurrency?
The debate over whether Ether can overcome BTC and become a leading digital asset has been a hot topic in recent years.
In early May, Dallas Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban joined the argument, citing three reasons why ETH will eventually outperform BTC: “The ETH network is capable of processing more transactions per second and is the platform where the future of finance is formed. It also boasts higher utilization compared to BTC. ”
Prominent investor Mike Novogratz also commented on this matter. A well-known crypto bull has suggested that such a scenario where Ether surpasses BTC is possible because the network behind the second largest cryptocurrency is expanding rapidly. However, he outlined the characteristics of two digital assets, BTC will be a digital version of gold, while ETH will have different purposes:
“I think ETH may one day become even the biggest cryptocurrency, but it will have a very different use case than BTC.”
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