Can Ethereum give Bitcoin a good run for money?

Highlights

• Ether, following its Altair upgrade, registered its all-time high record of US$4,400 on 29 October.
• Ether gained as much as 3.5% to US $4,403.93, topping its previous all-time high of US $4,379.62 in May.  
• As per CoinMarketcap, ETH was trading at US$4,328.31 at the time of writing (BST 8:20 am), with a 24-hour trading volume of US $26,35,89,01,970.

In October, Ethereum, the largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, has had a good run so far. Following its poor performance in September, Ethereum has established it as an undisputed king of the altcoins with the recent rally. The second-largest cryptocurrency in the world climbed to an all-time high following its Altair upgrade on 27 October. It registered its all-time high record of US$4,400 at around 2:00 am (BST) on Friday.

While Bitcoin witnessed some ups and downs recently, Ethereum has managed to hold its ground and gained a significant profit in this period. Ether gained as much as 3.5% to US $4,403.93, topping its previous all-time high of US $4,379.62 in May. Tokens like Polkadot and Solana have also performed well so far this year.

As it stands today, Ether is one of the most used blockchains surpassing Bitcoin. Backed by popular projects such as MakerDAO and Uniswap, there are as many as 3,000 decentralised apps (DApps) on the Ethereum blockchain. 

The Bull Run 

After the horrific bear run for the crypto industry in May-July, Ether has been on a bull run since early October. Ether dropped to US$1,780 and gained almost 147% to reach the next level. 

However, the surge comes on the back of the recent Altair upgrade. The upgrade was a success as 98.7% of nodes were upgraded, and this feature is expected to help Ethereum achieve Eth 2.0. The Altair upgrade is also expected to take Ethereum closer to transitioning to a proof-of-stake consensus, which will also help the Ethereum mainnet merge with the Beacon Chain.

At the time of writing, (BST 8:20 am) ETH was trading at US$4,328.31, with 24-hour trading volume of US $26,35,89,01,970. Ether was up by 7.74% with a live market cap of US $5,11,26,33,80,621. 

Image credit: Tradingview

In fact, looking at the chart, the RSI (relative strength index) indicated at the worm arrow at the bottom is at 63.92, indicating that it's looking to climb out of its bad September period. 

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) line in the red histogram indicates it will struggle to contain this rally, as the bears look to catch with the blue like, which is represented through the signal line. For now, he bulls have their noses ahead of the bears. The bulls will also take heart from the fact that not just the price, there is a surge of 3.14% in the volume. 

Can Ether supersede Bitcoin? 

Well, Ethereum is already ahead of Bitcoin as the most used blockchain. Ethereum 2.0 could give it the second-ranked crypto to take it a bit further as it will solve many issues related to validation from "proof-of-work" to "proof-of-stake".

Image credit: Copyright Kalkaine

On the other hand, the Bitcoin community doesn't like the proof of stake as it gives the most power to the biggest validators, potentially allowing them to corrupt the system of validation. Ethereum community believes that the proof of stake creates essential checks and balances, which would prevent such a thing.

Besides, Ethereum operates through smart contracts, a form of automated agreements, which ensures that money and assets change hands when certain conditions are fulfilled. The transactions that happen ultimately use Ether. 

Besides, the transaction speed on BTC is often plagued by congestion issues. Even though the developers are trying to solve it by building applications like Lightning, but they haven't been able to compete with Ether. The Altair Network will further enhance its performance. 

But a few areas where BTC outscores Ether is the market cap and the mass adoption. The BTC ETFs have added another dimension to the Bitcoin adoption in the mainstream.

Conclusion 

Market experts believe that the current rally is a welcome at this stage. With the Altair upgrade, it is expected that Ether could enter a new dimension of Ether 2.0, where it could further gain. As an undisputed king of the altcoins, Ether would like to cash in on the rallies that altcoins have witnessed recently. 

Ether achieving ATH has undoubtedly added fuel to the debate of whether Ether is better than BTC. For now, Ethereum still has a lot of catching up to do with Bitcoin. However, this all-time high comes in as good news for the most-loved blockchain network. A couple of years later perhaps, we could see Ethereum giving Bitcoin a good run for its money. 

For a crypto enthusiast, betting on both would be best!