After suffering significant losses on the way down from November’s all-time highs, the current developments have enabled Bitcoin to regain some of its lost territory versus altcoins. Previously, emphasis was concentrated on prominent tokens like as Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), and others, which took advantage of Bitcoin’s vulnerability.
With the tables apparently turned, BTC is regaining momentum, having maintained a 40% market share for the latter part of last month. Market capitalization is far from an accurate indicator of market strength, since it puts proven tokens against those with a limited history and ignores the effort or value underlying a specific cryptocurrency’s market capitalization.
Analysts prefer the realized cap, which prices each unexpended transaction output (UTXO) depending on the recent price movement of the cryptocurrencies involved in the transaction. Unlike the normal market value, the realized cap has stayed relatively stable since November’s all-time highs, presently standing at $453 billion, according to statistics from on-chain analytics company Messari.
On the subject of attained capitalization, the Ether measure has seen a greater dramatic retracement since Q4 of last year. With debate surrounding the Ethereum 2.0 project and record-high transaction costs, doubts about Ethereum’s capacity to contend with Bitcoin begin to swirl.
“Ethereum is not a value storage and settlement platform in the same way that Bitcoin is,” analyst Dylan LeClair wrote Tuesday in response to the fees debate. “Since its introduction, ETH has been less economical as a settlement network as its currency has gained value.”
According to data from on-chain analytics startup Glassnode, the value exchanged on the Ethereum blockchain per $1 in fees is dropping in comparison to Bitcoin. According to other estimates, Bitcoin transaction costs currently account for less than 1% of the fees paid for ETH trades.
“I almost couldn’t trust it when I witnessed it, BTC is now equal to 1% of $ETH in regards to the amount people are paying to utilize the network,” VC partner Chris Burniske wrote on Twitter after posting the data.
