Featured image from Unsplash, Chart from Tradingview.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan dubbed Ethereum (ETH) the \u2018Microsoft of blockchains\u2019, adding that none of the smart contract platform\u2019s challenges are existential. Ethereum Has Challenges, But None Of Them Are Existential In a recent memo titled \u2018A Contrarian Bet on Ethereum\u2019, Hougan highlighted the tumbling ETH\/BTC trading pair, indicating the weakening Ethereum price versus Bitcoin (BTC). At press time, the trading pair is exchanging hands at 0.038, its lowest level in three years. Related Reading: Ethereum-Bitcoin Ratio Breaks 0.04 Barrier: Could Altcoins Be At Risk? Compared to some of the other leading digital currencies, ETH hasn\u2019t had an eventful 2024. On a year-to-date basis, Bitcoin is up 38%, while the rival smart contract platform Solana (SOL) is up 31%. Binance\u2019s BNB token has surged by 72% in the same period. However, ETH has remained flat, currently trading at $2,306.\u00a0 Ethereum\u2019s underperformance in terms of token price, according to Hougan, has made it \u2018cool to hate Ethereum right now.\u2019 Hougan noted several factors that might risk the Ethereum ecosystem, including the prospect of Democratic US presidential candidate Kamala Harris winning the election and continuing Biden administration\u2019s suspicious attitude toward everything crypto. In addition, the Bitwise CIO acknowledged the threats posed by competing blockchain projects, such as Solana, that offer higher throughput and lower transaction costs. He also admitted that ETH exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) haven\u2019t had as much success as Bitcoin ETFs. Although Hougan acknowledged the success of several Layer-2 solutions such as Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism, he stressed that their success has pulled so much transaction volume from Ethereum that its revenues have crashed to a four-year low. According to Hougan, these reasons are valid but \u2018they miss the broader point.\u2019 Hougan stressed that blockchain applications witnessing success in user adoption are all dominated by Ethereum, such as stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi). Over 50% of stablecoins are still issued on the ETH blockchain. Similarly, over 60% of DeFi assets are locked in various ETH-powered protocols.\u00a0 Hougan Remains Bullish On ETH In the memo, Hougan mentioned that institutional confidence in Ethereum remains high, as seen in asset manager BlackRock\u2019s decision to develop a tokenized money market on Ethereum this year. Similarly, Nike chose Ethereum to launch its Web 3 gear platform called Swoosh. Related Reading: Time To Convert Bitcoin To Ethereum? ETH\/BTC Charts Gears Up For 180% Surge He noted: Ethereum has the most active developers, the most active users, and a market cap that is 5x bigger than its closest competitor. It\u2019s the only programmable blockchain that has a modicum of regulatory support in the U.S., with a booming regulated futures market and a multi-billion-dollar ETF market. To bolster his argument, Hougan compared Ethereum to software juggernaut Microsoft, saying that even though other tech companies like Google, Zoom, and Slack have offered useful services, Microsoft continues to be larger than all of them put together. Concluding, Hougan said that Ethereum\u2019s opportunities are enormous. As the world inches closer to the November US presidential elections, the market participants may reevaluate the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap. At press time, ETH trades at $2,306, commanding a total market cap of $277 billion. Featured image from Unsplash, Chart from Tradingview.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":619,"featured_media":642830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89518],"tags":[134,14917,1020,1558,4854,1946,78803],"class_list":["post-642827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethereum-news","tag-altcoin","tag-bitwise","tag-blockchain","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-ether","tag-ethereum","tag-ethusdt"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Bitwise CIO Calls Ethereum The 'Microsoft Of Blockchains', Can ETH Make A Comeback?<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n