2021 is the year of Ether and it’s challenging Bitcoin for crypto-supremacy [Opinion]

Sean Sanders, the founder, and CEO of Cape Town-based cryptocurrency investment platform Revix, shares valuable insight into Ether.

Ether is already up more than 300% this year – close to three-fold Bitcoin’s growth in the same period

Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, has been the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation for quite some time. In early May, it reached an all-time high of $4,197 crossing the psychologically important $4,000.

Ether is already up more than 300% this year – close to three-fold Bitcoin’s growth in the same period. The cryptocurrency has dethroned Bitcoin’s market value from 85% to 46%. 

Does Ether have the potential to overtake Bitcoin’s market cap?

Ether has the potential to become the largest cryptocurrency, especially as it is very scalable and offers more everyday real-use cases than other cryptocurrencies.

The Ethereum blockchain is unlike other cryptocurrency blockchains in that it allows financial applications and programmes to be built on it. These financial applications can be used for smart contracts, secure digital voting, the classification of title deeds and medical records, as an example. 

These financial applications also support DeFi (decentralised finance) – a blockchain-based form of finance that removes intermediaries and allows peer-to-peer lending, borrowing, and insurance services. 

What has led to Ethereum’s rapid increase in value in recent months?

Ethereum recently had a blockchain upgrade, which improved the speed at which it can operate. Ethereum adoption has grown exponentially and at a faster pace than Bitcoin. This is further increasing demand and driving up the price. 

To further add to its growth, $25-million was recently invested in an Ethereum scaling solution. 

This will see a multitude of new applications and programmes being built on the Ethereum blockchain, which will help it to scale even faster.

How has the pandemic impacted South Africa’s FinTech sector?

The pandemic has significantly impacted the global and South African FinTech sectors, with many smaller, nascent South African FinTechs closing down. 

I expect that in the next few years South Africa will see local equivalents of the global FinTech unicorns we’re seeing at the moment. 

This article was written by Sean Sanders, CEO, and founder of Revix.

Featured image: Sean Sanders, CEO, and founder of Revix (Supplied)