Once again, it appears the news has been working hard to ensure bitcoin is covered in all its crypto-related headlines while turning its back on all the smaller, competing altcoins that have seemingly been doing better at press time.
Bitcoin Is Outshining Many Stronger Coins
No doubt that bitcoin appears to be getting back on track as of late. After a heavy drop that saw the currency lose roughly $10,000 off the $42,000 high it attained in early January, the currency is back on track to hitting $40,000 territory following its recent surge to just over $37,000 at the time of writing.
The currency’s boost comes after Elon Musk – the South African entrepreneur behind both Tesla and SpaceX – commented in a recent interview that bitcoin was a “good thing” and on the verge of accomplishing widespread acceptance. He also changed his Twitter bio to “#bitcoin,” boosting the world’s number one digital asset by market cap even further.
But in the middle of everything, it appears the mainstream media has once again forgotten about the globe’s smaller cryptocurrencies, many of which at this time, are doing far better than bitcoin.
Ethereum, for example, is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and the number one competitor to bitcoin. The currency has been enjoying a major run as of late and has added a full 20 percent to its price over just the last week alone. It has since surged beyond the $1,500 mark, attaining a new all-time high for itself.
ETH is up 700 percent in the last 12 months. That’s about 400 percent higher than what bitcoin managed to attain in the same timeframe and ETH is likely up for partial blame when it comes to the cryptocurrency world’s sudden jump beyond the $700 billion valuation (it was only at around $600 billion last week).
Ethereum is doing so well as of late that Grayscale – an institutional investment group that allows professional players to engage in crypto trades – has agreed to reopen its Ethereum Trust to potential investors after decided to close it down last December.
Is Ethereum the Future?
Simon Peters – an analyst with brokerage firm e-Toro – claims in a recent interview:
With institutions expected to add further to their positions, we expect the price of Ethereum to push higher from here. Nothing goes up in a straight line of course, and there will be further volatility, but this demand-led run higher looks more than sustainable.
In the meantime, other assets such as Cardano are also up by about 30 percent since last week, while Litecoin is trading for roughly 15 percent higher. Dogecoin has also seen a surge of several hundred percent in the past week following increased attention on Reddit, while XRP – the official cryptocurrency of Ripple – has also incurred a jump exceeding 50 percent despite its ongoing lawsuit with the SEC.