If you ask what is the cryptocurrency with biggest growth in 2021, the answer might surprise you. The asset that was born from a meme rose more than 9,000% so far in 2021, however, eyes should be on the cryptocurrency which grew 400%.
If only percentages were measured, Dogecoin, Elon Musk’s fetish cryptocurrency, would be unrivaled. This digital asset that was born from a meme rose more than 9,000% so far in 2021.
This value, if compared to the modest 400% that ether rose does not seem like an achievement. However, looking beyond these figures, it can be concluded that the coin created by Vitalik Buterin, is consolidated as the second-largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin, and is the most solid token so far in 2021.
For its part, the ‘lunatic’ flights of dogecoin, with volatility at the pace almost of the ‘tweets’ of Tesla’s CEO, who one day ironizes about the token and the other sends it, literally, to the Moon, are in the background when analyzing the progression of ether in recent months and the fundamentals of the same.
The first thing to note is that unlike dogecoin, whose rise has been driven by Musk’s comments and my tweets and Reddit threads, the Ethereum blockchain network is supported by institutional investors and has been the choice for multi-billion-dollar transactions around NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
Although its technology is like bitcoin, rather than being seen by its advocates as a gold-like store of value, ether is seen as part of an Ethereum network that has multiple applications. Investors such as billionaire Mark Cuban have repeatedly asserted as much. This is because one of its uses is to provide an infrastructure for a decentralized Internet and people can create applications on such a network. The giant Microsoft is one of the backers of the Ethereum network.
“Ethereum is a blockchain platform that works like the Apple store or the Android app store,” Pat LaVecchia, CEO of Oasis Pro Markets, recently explained to Bloomberg. The analyst contrasts this sort of U.S. platform for trading digital securities with a bitcoin that constitutes “a commodity like gold, a store of value.”
Market capitalization
This versatility and a promising horizon ahead have caused the coin to soar in recent days and nearly double in value in the last month. The cryptocurrency now costs $4,000 per token, a far cry from the $176 it cost just a year ago.
With a market capitalization of $481.8 billion, larger than Coca-Cola, Snap and Ford Motor combined, ether is only behind bitcoin’s $1.1 trillion market capitalization in the cryptocurrency universe.
An investment in ether at the beginning of the year would have seen strong growth in the following months. A $1,000 purchase of ether on Jan. 1, the price was $730.97 per coin, would be worth $5,710.85 at the $4,174.46 price the token posted beginning of this week, with a gain of 471%.
The gain moderated slightly this Tuesday, as the bulk of cryptocurrencies woke up with declines, although ether soon regained $4,000. The return in 2021 would now be at 450% while bitcoin’s is 90%.
