Ethereum [ETH] has been maintaining its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency and has been showing signs of decoupling from the largest crypto asset, Bitcoin [BTC] over the past few weeks.
Ether hit its all-time high on 22 April at $2,674 and even though a correction followed this surge, the digital asset was still returning 190% to its investors since the beginning of the year, while BTC was returning 60%.
On 23 April, when ETH hit its ATH, its daily transaction volume hit $1.49 million which was a record high. Meanwhile, the daily income of Ethereum miners also hit $66.3 million as highlighted by Colin Wu on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain/status/1385896264433238016
In the meantime, BTC had already dropped under $50k and was struggling to reverse the losses. This surge that was witnessed in the Ether’s value may have attracted more users to hedge losses faced in the Bitcoin market. This was also a sign of Ether decoupling from Bitcoin as it independently surged and did not mirror BTC’s losses like before.
Simon Peters, cryptoasset analyst at multi-asset investment platform, eToro talked about the decoupling:
“While the two have traded in tandem for much of the last three years, as the cryptoasset market starts to mature, investors will be looking across the broader spectrum of assets and assessing which has the best long-term potential.”
Peters noted that during the current hiccup in the BTC market, the investors found an alternative in Ethereum. He added:
“With Ether’s dollar valuation significantly lower than Bitcoin, it also appeals to investors who want to own whole coins, something which is now far more expensive to achieve with Bitcoin.”
Ethereum has been grabbing the attention of various traders and investors, especially of institutions. The recent launch of Ethereum’s ETF on a Canadian exchange has definitely helped its value in the spot market, but the latest upgrade has also indicated tremendous growth potential. As the market matures every past day, Ether has been posing itself as a better investment for the new and small retail investors.
