The flagship cryptocurrency is undoubtedly the uncrowned emperor of the crypto market. The main reason for this is it has the largest market cap, and no other altcoin has challenged its position in that regard. Meanwhile, Ethereum, referred to as the crown prince of the crypto space, also has large followership. ETH is placed only second to Bitcoin in terms of market cap.
It will be a real challenge for any altcoin to beat Bitcoin at this point. However, the silver cryptocurrency has been able to surpass the flagship cryptocurrency in some other avenues. At present, Bitcoin and Ethereum account for about 65% of the entire market cap of the crypto space. After a recent recovery, it has been noted that the numbers of active addresses on ETH have left behind Bitcoin by leaps. Hence, the rumour mongers are claiming that Flippening might be in the cards.
Bitcoin is Losing Active Addresses while Ethereum is Gaining Numbers
CoinMetrics is a crypto market analytics service. A recent report from the aggregator denotes that the number of active addresses on the Bitcoin blockchain went down by 8.5%. In contrast, the same metric for Ethereum kept increasing. The report claims that Ethereum has managed to grow 9.2% higher in terms of active market addresses. At present, Ethereum has 200K more active addresses in comparison to Bitcoin.
Such an event is not the first occurrence for the silver cryptocurrency. Therefore, the investors have once again started to talk about the impending Flippening event. In the first week of last month, ETH also showed similar behaviour by leaving behind the leading cryptocurrency. Thus, the idea that Ethereum would eventually take over the market is rooted in investors’ minds since 2017 despite the vastly different functionalities of both cryptocurrencies.
The Highly Anticipated Flippening Event is not as Simple as One might Imagine
The term Flippening was first coined in 2017 that presented the idea that Ethereum would surpass Bitcoin in terms of market cap. However, the bitcoin market cap accounts for 45% while Ethereum contributes only 18% indicates that the gap is huge. On the other hand, it should be taken into consideration that over time both Ethereum and Bitcoin have evolved into very different roles and functionalities.
Bitcoin that was presented as a digital payment alternative has morphed into a store of value. There are some attributes of the beacon coin that makes it a better option than gold. Therefore, the institutional interest for BTC is higher in comparison to any other altcoin. ETH is used as a platform for hosting crypto coins, deploying smart contracts, and distributing applications. It offers the investors a chance to participate in DeFi protocols. Therefore, it is not fair to pit two vastly different trade digital assets against one another.