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Cryptocurrencies have been all the rage – especially this year. Digital assets have given such returns over the years, that they have beaten the riskiest assets out there fair and square.
Even though initially there was lot of skepticism from the policymakers over this, however, over time, their acceptability has grown. The cryptocurrency exchanges got listed on stock markets – with the listing of Coinbase Inc (NASDAQ:COIN). Also, there were cryptocurrency exchange traded funds that got listed all over the globe. To balance things a bit, Canada came up with inverse Cryptocurrency ETF – meant for shorting the digital currencies.
In what further highlights cryptocurrencies’ march to the mainstream, El Salvador – a lower income Central American country – has made Bitcoin as an optional legal tender and is also promoting it. And El Salvador is not alone in this game. A pro-bitcoin lawmaker from Paraguay is planning a move to push for legalising bitcoin – which he says aims at making the country a digital currency hub of the world.
Except for Tether, most other cryptocurrencies have been volatile, though. Tether, like actual national currencies, has not swung wildly. But all others, including bitcoin, have oscillated vehemently, sending every asset management theory for a toss.
What are top cryptocurrencies out there?
There are different ways of gauging top cryptocurrencies – or at least, two of them. One can be gauged on the basis of market capitalisation, another on total exchange volume. On both the fronts, bitcoin has been a trendsetter. The market capitalisation of bitcoin stands at US$644 billion – about three times than that of second-placed Ethereum. On the other hand, the total volume exchange of Bitcoin stands at US$38.38 billion. Ethereum, however, had displaced Bitcoin as most traded digital currency for a brief period of time. But now, it is back to the second slot with total exchange volume of US$25.22 billion. In terms of market capitalisation, Ethereum stands at US$230.71 billion. In terms of price as well, Ethereum follows bitcoin for the top two slots. However, for the third slot, the game gets interesting. In terms of price, Cardano stands at US$1.31 – at third slot, followed by Tether at US$1 a piece. In terms of market capitalisation, Tether stands at the third slot – valued at US$64.25 billion, followed by XRP at US$63.81 billion. In terms of volume as well, Tether is at third slot, with exchange volume of US$57.99 billion, followed by distant fourth Cardano – valued at US$4.33 billion.
Can Ethereum overtake bitcoin?
Well, it is a tricky question. For a very short window, Ethereum did replace bitcoin as the most traded digital currency. But in terms of price and market capitalization, bitcoin is miles ahead of the second-placed Ethereum. And as the old adage goes – the only thing constant in the world is change – and hence, at some point in future, Ether may exceed bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency. Analysts are backing this with the fact that Ethereum is way superior when it comes to innovation and developer interest. Many experts have started dubbing ether as a better growth story for the long term.
