Ethereum won’t easily topple Bitcoin, but Ordinals could change that
Bitcoin block space looks set to become the hottest commodity in cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin once again accounts for more than half of the entire cryptocurrency market, outperforming Ethereum by nearly double so far in 2023. Now, the long-predicted Ethereum-to-Bitcoin “flip” isn’t even close to happening.
The current market valuation of Bitcoin is three times that of Ethereum. Bitcoin has a market capitalization of $727 billion, an increase of $400 billion by 2023—a figure higher than Mastercard’s entire stock valuation and roughly twice that of Netflix.
Ethereum’s valuation has grown by $100 billion, jumping from less than $145 billion in January to nearly $245 billion today.
Some expect Ethereum's market capitalization to one day surpass that of Bitcoin, despite the latter already having a five-year head start.
Things are looking good for emerging from the 2019 bear market and entering an explosive bull cycle in 2021. DeFi summer and NFT mania have boosted interest in Ethereum, sometimes resulting in fees exceeding $250 for some operations.
As of late 2019 (the bottom of the bear market), Bitcoin’s valuation was 925% higher than Ethereum’s, at $130 billion to $14 billion.
By the end of 2021 (the peak of the bull market), this number had shrunk to below 200%.
