Move over Bitcoin, it’s Ethereum’s time! The world’s first cryptocurrency has had a spectacular few months, but the star is the younger sibling, Ethereum (ETH), which is shining brighter.

After hovering around its previous all-time high of circa $2,800 for the better part of last week, Ethereum finally smashed past the psychological $3,000 price point and continues to print new highs every trading session. ETH is now in unfamiliar territory and the direction of least resistance is upwards. The world’s no2 cryptocurrency started the year at circa $750, and at current levels, it has more than quadrupled, and it is not yet done!

Bitcoin has not done too shabby itself, starting 2021 at circa $29,000 and maintaining buoyancy above $55,000. Bitcoin has always held its appeal as a store of value and is often touted as the future of money. Ethereum, on the other hand, is seen as a powerful, open-source blockchain platform upon which decentralized applications, smart contracts and other platforms can run on. Thus, Ethereum is often touted as the future of the internet.

Bitcoin’s recent growth has also been fueled by the adoption of cryptocurrencies by corporate companies. In particular, major announcements by Tesla, PayPal and MicroStrategy have helped provide tailwinds for the primary cryptocurrency. But Ethereum has also enjoyed positive sentiment and has way more positive fundamentals going its way. Compared to bitcoin, Ethereum has a neat and modern blockchain platform that is also set for further upgrades to make the network even more efficient. There is also excitement over the incoming Ethereum 2.0 upgrade that will see the network abandon the energy-intensive POW (proof of work) consensus mechanism and adopt the capital-intensive POS (proof of stake) consensus mechanism. Data from IntoTheBlock also showed that there were 7 million new Ethereum addresses, and combined with rising interest from institutional investors, we have a dynamic that could see Ethereum rally in the same manner that bitcoin did in 2017.

Ethereum also has an active community that considers the cryptocurrency far superior to bitcoin in everything, other than ‘price and fame’. The recent rally though can be attributed to the explosion of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), most of which are supported on the Ethereum platform. Already, an NFT has been sold for just under $70 million, and the industry is just getting started!

Ethereum now has a market capitalization of about $350 billion, compared to Bitcoin’s $1.1 trillion. A short term price target for investors is the $5,000 price handle owing to the positive sentiment and excitement surrounding the cryptocurrency. The medium-term focus will then surely be $10,000, a price that will see ETH achieve a market capitalization in excess of $1 trillion; and hopefully ‘Flippen’- to overtake bitcoin as the world’s top cryptocurrency.