By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – Could Ethereum overtake Bitcoin as biggest cryptocurrency? That’s the view of Ryan Watkins, senior research analyst at crypto analysis company Messari.
Watkins was speaking on the YouTube channel FinTech Today and the comments have been picked up by cryptocurrency news site Coin Telegraph.
Citing Ethereum’s Eth2 and proof-of-stake overhaul, Watkins speculated that the market cap of Ethereum could overtake Bitcoin.
“I think that with the shift to Eth2 and to proof-of-stake, Ethereum may actually potentially be more secure than Bitcoin,” Watkins said. “Ethereum’s monetary policy will actually change in Eth2 so that it actually won’t just be just be less inflationary than Bitcoin, it would actually be deflationary.”
Watkins then questions what the bull case would be for Bitcoin if Ethereum is more secure and has a stronger monetary policy.
Current size
It is well known that the market cap of Bitcoin exceeded $1tln recently as the world’s largest cryptocurrency saw its price break above $60,000. Ethereum on the other hand is much smaller. The total market cap is just over $200bln. Nevertheless, over the last year Ethereum has actually outperformed Bitcoin. In the last 12 months Ethereum has gained 1400% compared to Bitcoin’s 950% gain.
Watkins added that there is a diverse economy being built on the Ethereum network, suggesting the network’s increasing decentralised application sector will attract new users at a greater pace than Bitcoin over time.
Watch the interview with Messari’s Ryan Watkins below: