The crypto market price suddenly rises towards $ 2 trillion – could Ethereum be about to “flip” Bitcoin?

Ethereum’s big upgrade, codenamed London, went online earlier today – it helped Ethereum price gains of 20% last week and sent Bitcoin back over $ 40,000.

The Ethereum price surge, which is propelling Ethereum tokens towards $ 3,000, has caused the combined crypto market to surge to nearly $ 1.7 trillion from its recent lows of $ 1.2 trillion in July (subscribe to Forbes’ CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor now and discover crypto blockbusters ready for 1,000). % Profits).

As Ethereum’s rally accelerates and Bitcoin price stays in the dust, some in the crypto industry are predicting that Ethereum could overtake Bitcoin as the world’s largest cryptocurrency by value.

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MORE FROM FORBESCrypto Price Prediction: Bitcoin Could Stay In The Dust From Ethereum In 2021Of Billy Bambrough

Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, has seen a long-awaited upgrade … [+] today – boost crypto prices across the board.

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“Ethereum could make Bitcoin the world’s leading cryptocurrency,” said Tim Sabanov, chief technology officer of the Scotland-based Bitcoin and crypto platform Zumo, in email comments ahead of the planned upgrade of Ethereum.

The London upgrade from Ethereum aims to scale the blockchain and make the rising transaction fees more manageable. The upgrade is part of Ethereum’s long-awaited move away from the energy-intensive proof-of-work model used by Bitcoin to the proof-of-stake, which allows users to generate new Ether tokens over their existing holdings and known as the Ethereum 2.0. The entire upgrade is unlikely to be fully implemented before 2022.

“Ethereum took a look at something that already existed – Bitcoin – and improved it,” Sabanov said. “It has an extremely dynamic developer community and that means the ecosystem is growing at an amazing rate.”

Ethereum bulls point out that the network recently overtook Bitcoin on a number of closely watched metrics and its price performance compared to Bitcoin over the last year to justify their predictions. Ethereum is up 600% in the past 12 months, compared to the 250% increase for Bitcoin.

“The crypto giant recently outperformed Bitcoin in the total number of active daily addresses, and these dynamics show no signs of slowing as the network continues to drive major DeFi and NFT trends,” added Sabanov.

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) that uses crypto technology to reinvent traditional financial products like loans and insurance without the need for banks and are non-fungible tokens (NFTs), unique digital crypto tokens tied to online media both have become multi-billion dollar markets over the past couple of years. Almost all DeFi funds and NFTs are currently based and traded on Ethereum’s blockchain.

When upgrading Ethereum, some Ethereum tokens are also destroyed or “burned” – which means that new tokens come onto the market and the tokens theoretically become scarcer.

Earlier this week, Dan Morehead, founder of $ 2.8 billion crypto fund Pantera Capital, reportedly predicted that Ethereum would eventually flip Bitcoin – although Bitcoin price was expected to be a whopping 700,000 in just ten years Dollars per bitcoin.

“You will see a transition of people who want to store wealth, in ether and not just in Bitcoin,” Morehead told Reuters Global Markets Forum on Monday, as Cointelegraph reported.

In June, Nathan Cox, chief investment officer of $ 100 million digital asset investment manager Two Prime, predicted that Ethereum will eventually “flip” Bitcoin.

“In the long, long, multi-year timeline, Ethereum will turn Bitcoin around,” said Two Prime’s Nathan Cox. “It is only just beginning to be understood by the second tier users. The benefits of Ethereum alone will surpass everything else.”

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MORE FROM FORBESCrypto Price Prediction: Why Bitcoin Could Reach $ 700,000 in Just 10 YearsOf Billy Bambrough

Ethereum price is up 600% in the last year and has ridden the DeFi and NFT craze that both use … [+] Ethereum’s blockchain. Bitcoin has also increased, but at a slower rate, increasing its price by 250%.

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Earlier this year, longtime cryptocurrency bull Mike Novogratz, CEO of crypto investor Galaxy Digital, also predicted that Ethereum could one day become the “largest cryptocurrency”.

Meanwhile, many in the cryptocurrency space have expressed their support for upgrading Ethereum, claiming that it will be of great benefit to the crypto industry and market.

“For the many related cryptocurrencies and DeFi applications, this is a huge boost in efficiency, so good for the entire crypto ecosystem,” said Diogo Monica, co-founder and president of crypto bank Anchorage Digital, via email.

“We are confident that [ethereum’s] The network upgrade will be successful in revamping the network’s transaction fee market and other parameters like gas refunds, “said Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of both crypto exchange Bitfinex and stablecoin issuer Tether Limited, in positive impact email comments on the DeFi usage on Ethereum and help the network to realize its enormous potential. “