Ethereum is the most dominant cryptocurrency among the Top 4, based on activity, updates and the highest Github submission rate. The development team of Ethereum makes daily routine submissions that make it the busiest cryptocurrency that ranks #2 based on market capitalization.
Despite its dominance, there are a few challenges facing ETH 2.0’s further growth. As Vitalik Buterin shared the latest statistics for Ethereum’s development on his Twitter handle, he acknowledged that decentralization may have taken a further blow.
However, what Vitalik planned for the past 7 years, for Ethereum, PoS, and is now being implemented in full swing. This explains why Ethereum’s growth is not entirely explosive, like Bitcoin’s price rallies post every halving.
Ethereum’s market capitalization and adoption curves are smoother. For the #2 asset to take over as the fastest-growing asset, there are several altcoin competitors like LINK, ADA, and XRP to tackle, based on data from CoinMarketCap. Although Ethereum’s daily active addresses, unique addresses, and demand is on the rise, this does not guarantee double-digit growth.
ETH Daily Active Addresses || Source: Etherscan
The development activity in ETH 2.0 points to increased adoption as well. Popular on-chain analyst Willy Woo built the case for HODLers increasing Bitcoin’s utility and adoption by HODLing Bitcoin in their wallets. A similar case can be built for Ethereum. A major drawback that gathered much criticism for Ethereum was the congestion on its network. With the new ETH 2.0 the network is scalable and DeFi projects stand to benefit from the same. Ethereum’s rapid development activity suggests that it may not be looking to compete with Bitcoin or replace it as an alternative.
ETH Development is rising || Source: Santiment
As the latest upgrade has cut electricity usage, there is a new generation of ETH First investors and this may change the portfolio and investing landscape for institutions in crypto. Grayscale Trust has already started buying Ethereum through Grayscale Ethereum Trust, more institutions are expected to start buying, increasing the demand for Ethereum. The Trust has currently offered over 296% in 12 month returns to shareholders of ETHE. The Ethereum network has recorded over 750k transactions daily, since June 2020 and there is a steady increase in daily transactions to 1250k, based on data from Etherscan charts. Further buying by Grayscale or other institutions may increase daily transaction count to 1500k level or higher. This is sure to make the network further busy, however, scalability may be an effective solution to the increasing adoption.
