Ethereum Overtakes Bitcoin As The Largest Cryptocurrency

Ethereum is predicted to become the largest cryptocurrency to replace Bitcoin. (photo: unsplash)

JAKARTA - Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has begun to lose its market dominance over Ethereum (ETH). This statement comes from the CEO of Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky.

In a Monday July 5 interview with Kitco News, Mashinsky argued that Ether was “flippening,” or a hypothetical scenario in which Ether overtook Bitcoin as the world's most valuable cryptocurrency. Even now it's happening on the Celsius Network.

“We manage about 17 billion U.S. dollars in deposits, or in customer coins, and the number one coin held in dollars is Ethereum,” Mashinsky said of the flippening that had happened to Celsius.

Mashinsky also predicts that Ether will completely surpass Bitcoin in terms of market cap by 2022 or 2023.

“The reversal has already happened. Ethereum has surpassed Bitcoin in dollars as total community holdings in Celsius. I expect the wider market to follow suit in the next year or two. We will see that flippening occurs in the broader market as well,” said Mashinsky.

Mashinsky stated that the main trigger for the upcoming flippening is the difference between the main use cases of Bitcoin and Ether. According to the CEO of Celsius Network, Bitcoin's primary use case is a store of value, while Ether's primary use case is agricultural produce, the practice of staking or locking cryptocurrencies in exchange.

“Yield is an app that just has a wider user base. So I think over time you will see a wider adoption of Ethereum than Bitcoin. But obviously both are great applications and excellent blockchain, and we will see widespread adoption of both, only one will outpace the other,” said Mashinsky.

Launched in 2018, Celsius Network is a decentralized lending and borrowing platform, which allows users to earn rewards by transferring their coins to Celsius wallet and borrowing dollars or stable coins against their crypto collateral. The platform operates its own CEL token which is an ERC-20 coin running on the Ethereum network.

Bitcoin has emerged as the world's oldest digital currency and the most valuable cryptocurrency, and dominates altcoins like Ether in terms of market cap. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was launched in 2015 and has yet to overtake Bitcoin in terms of market value.

Currently, Bitcoin's share of the crypto market – also referred to as Bitcoin dominance – is 44.6%, while Ether is at 18.5%, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Mashinsky is not alone in thinking that Ether will overtake Bitcoin in terms of value. Last week, Galaxy Digital founder and CEO Mike Novogratz also predicted that Ether could become “the biggest cryptocurrency one day.”