Analyzing the Flippening: When Will Ethereum Overtake BTC?

‘The Flippening’, termed in 2017, refers to the possibility of Ethereum’s market capitalization overtaking Bitcoin’s market capitalization. Bitcoin (BTC) has a market cap of $707 Billion, while Ethereum has a $270 Billion market capitalization. The flippening is a hypothetical moment where Ethereum will become the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

First — the Absolute Basics: What is Market Cap?

The market capitalization of a cryptocurrency is characterized based on the circulating supply multiplied by the current price. Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency starter, is ranked number one in the market cap, followed by Ethereum, which takes the second position.

Bitcoin vs. Ethereum

BTCs market domination saw a significant drop in recent years. This drop was the most visible in mid-2017 and early 2018. It was during this period that many Ethereum allies were hoping for the Flippening to occur. Since Ethereum has greater flexibility and ability to write smart contracts, speculators wondered if this would make the Flippening come true. However, that moment has yet to occur.

At present, according to blockchaincenter.net, the rate of Flippening in terms of Market Cap is 38.4%.

The Transaction Count and Volume Flippening are 100%. Trading volume (the adjusted exchange trading volume) for BTC and ETH is 70%. And the Total Transaction Fees Flippening is 100% as well.

The metrics mentioned above represent the following:

• Transaction Count indicates the relation of total on-chain transactions that happen on the network. It signals that Ethereum has flipped Bitcoin by 100%.
• Transaction Volume indicates the total amount of U.S. Dollars sent over the network. This metric exclusively compares ETH transfers with BTC. Both tokens and stablecoins transfers in Ethereum overtake Bitcoin by 100%.
• Total Transaction fees represent the total value of fees paid in USD to conduct a transaction on the network. Again, this metric also implies the Flippening where Ethereum had pushed over Bitcoin.

While Bitcoin rightly deserves to be on the top, Ethereum can lead the next stage of blockchain implementation. Ethereum blockchain has a solid foundation for decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT).

The Big Signs

Here are some signs highlighting Ethereum’s growth.

Goldman Sachs’ adoption

The leading global investment banking, securities, and investments management firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc has moved from Bitcoin to Ether. The international bank has now adopted ETH and plans to offer futures and options contracts for Ethereum. The bank has opened up to new market trends, which have now started adopting cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Mark Cuban’s views

Mark Cuban, the billionaire investor, has changed his views on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in recent months. Mark Cuban strongly believes that Ethereum 2.0 will spark development at such a level that it will ‘dwarf’ bitcoin and that bitcoin hasn’t gone beyond its store of value, unlike Ethereum.

He recently invested in an Indian Ethereum platform, Polygon, to prove his belief in Ethereum. Polygon runs on Ethereum based blockchain technology which specializes in decentralized finance apps.

What’s next?

While bitcoin prices have soared around 700% over the past year because of the backed-up support of Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey, Ethereum has had a higher price rise of 1,100%. The leading developer of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, also became the youngest billionaire in the crypto market via Ethereum. Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is being developed to improve its scalability and security.

The Ethereum network is also going to shift algorithms. The new algorithm proof-of-stake won’t reward ether tokens for maintaining the network to their users like before but will instead optimize the settlement of transactions where ethereum users can deposit tokens to secure the network and earn rewards. The proof-of-stake algorithm allows significantly higher multiples of transactions per second, which will improve the utilization and opportunities to create on Ethereum. Also, NFTs are popular and primarily utilize the Ethereum network itself.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, has gone through some changes and fixes in the last. The pseudo-anonymous nature of Bitcoin lets anyone make changes to Bitcoin’s code. However, to implement the changes, network consensus is required of 1000+ people and changes. As a result, the Bitcoin software is still developing and considered to be a beta. Like all technologies, if Bitcoin is not maintained and updated, it will fade and let another better cryptocurrency take its place.

Will the Flippening happen?

The recent progress of Ethereum’s market capitalization and its network up-gradation shows a lot of promise. Meanwhile, Bitcoin still focuses only on maintenance and hasn’t had any changes to improve its scalability. Ethereum users are also waiting for the upgrade, which is estimated to launch next year. So, the Flippening might not occur so soon.

However, for the first time, an open competition can be seen to determine which protocol and cryptocurrency will reign supreme. Only time will tell whether the Flippening phenomenon will become a reality. Regardless of the competition, the breadth of creativity and innovation is worth celebrating.