Ethereum (ETH), the second-biggest cryptocurrency, is taking investors away from bitcoin (BTC). In the next few days, there will be a software upgrade for ethereum that will reduce its energy use. It’s one of the main reasons more people are investing in it.
If we look at all cryptocurrencies, bitcoin has the biggest market share. It’s the most popular cryptocurrency. However, bitcoin’s market share recently fell from 47.5% to 39.1%. Ethereum has risen from 16% market share to 20.5%.
Ethereum is still far from matching bitcoin’s market share, but it’s getting closer. In January 2021, bitcoin was 72% of the cryptocurrency market and ethereum was only 10%.
Now, more people see ethereum as a safe asset. It has been successful for a long time now.
The ethereum software upgrade called “the Merge” is expected to start on Thursday (September 15). The Merge could boost ethereum’s price. It might become more valuable.
Ethereum will be an important part of “Web3”, a possible new version of the internet.
Bitcoin is still the most popular and well-known cryptocurrency. Mainstream investors who are interested in cryptocurrency usually invest in bitcoin first.
Bitcoin’s market cap, the value of all bitcoins combined, is $427 billion. This is more than double ethereum’s $210 billion market cap.
Bitcoin has a very limited supply of coins which helps keep its value high.
VOCABULARY
- Cryptocurrency – digital money, e.g., Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin, and more
- Investor – A person who puts money into a company or property and hopes to get a profit
- Reduce – to make less; make smaller; decrease; bring down; shrink
- Market share – the percentage or amount of a market or field; For example, if all cryptocurrencies equal 100%, bitcoin is 39.1% of that.
- Fall (fell) – to decrease; go down
- Rise (risen) – to increase; to go up
- Match – to be equal to; to be even with
- Asset – a thing or item that has value; property; examples of assets are houses, cash, gold, stocks, etc…
- Expect – to think something will happen; forecast; predict; suppose
- Boost – to help increase; to improve; to push up
- Valuable – worth a lot of money; very important;
- Mainstream – normal; usual; done or used by many people; common; standard
- Market cap (market capitalization) – the total value of a company; the total value of a type of tradable asset; For example, all of the available gold in the world is worth $11.2 trillion.
- Combine – bring together; merge; in total; unite
- Double – two times more; 2x
- Limited – restricted; controlled; not a lot; to have a maximum; finite
- Supply – an available amount; stock; reserve; product or pieces ready to be used or sold; the quantity or number of pieces available
Original story from Reuters below:
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