Cuban also said he believed the growing support among Silicon Valley founders, investors and executives for Republican 2024 White House hopeful Donald Trump is actually a “bitcoin play.” Sources who spoke with Reuters also noted that ether’s liquidity is much more constrained than bitcoin, partly due to yielding restrictions. They noted bitcoin’s first-mover advantage and stressed that the ether token offers functionality that wouldn’t be accessible through the ETFs, thus limiting demand. With ether trading at just under $3,500 as of Friday, that indicates upside of over 130%. Crypto analyst Linda has also predicted that these Ethereum ETFs will send ETH’s price to $4,000 soon enough. Ethereum’s market cap of $414.65 billion is similar to some major blue-chip stocks, such as UnitedHealthcare Group (UNH) at $464.21 billion and Mastercard (MA) at $405.70 billion.
Bitcoin vs. Ethereum: a comprehensive comparison
It enjoys far more recognition than any of its peers, and that makes it easier to buy, store, and sell. Get crypto market analysis and curated news delivered right to your inbox every week. As of December bitcoin vs ethereum 2022, BTC held a market dominance of 40.1%, while ETH’s share was 18.4%. Currently, BTC’s market share has surged to just under 50% of the total crypto market value, while ETH’s is around 18%.
Hype and FOMO Risks
At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s market cap has grown to over $1 trillion and has outpaced the growth of all other coins. It serves as a decentralized store of value — a peer-to-peer digital currency, used for financial transactions. Transactions, smart contracts creation, and dapps all require payment in Ether, the network’s native cryptocurrency. As Ether’s value increased, it also began to be seen as a store of value. Ethereum is designed to support the creation and deployment of smart contracts and dApps.
How Bitcoin and Ethereum Compare
Ethereum also doesn’t have as much name recognition as Bitcoin, so if merchants only accept one form of cryptocurrency, they may be more likely to accept Bitcoin than Ether. Finally, developers are working on an update to the Ethereum blockchain to make it far more energy-efficient. The new technology, Ethereum 2.0, will be released later this year and is expected to use 99.95% less energy than the current technology. Government-imposed regulations could make cryptocurrency safer and more secure, but they might also affect your access, the ways you use it and how it’s taxed. The IRS wants to know about gains from crypto investments you’ve sold.
Ethereum prices 2021-2024
- Cryptography ensures both the integrity and the chronological order of transactions, and a distributed consensus system confirms pending transactions.
- Understanding the similarities and differences between these two giants is key to a wider understanding and appreciation of cryptocurrency technology.
- However, bitcoin pundits point out that bitcoin mining is the only global industry that derives the majority of its power from renewable sources.
- While Ethereum does enable payments using its internal ETH cryptocurrency, its scope is much broader than bitcoin’s—by design.
- Trump declared support for crypto in late May and began accepting campaign donations in bitcoin and a handful of other cryptocurrencies.
- The price of bitcoin is up 117% year over year, compared to an 82% gain for ethereum.
- The new technology, Ethereum 2.0, will be released later this year and is expected to use 99.95% less energy than the current technology.
- Bitcoin is well-established as digital gold and a store of value, while Ethereum facilitates more sophisticated blockchain applications.
