Mitrade Insights is dedicated to providing investors with rich, timely and most valuable financial information to help investors grasp the market situation and find timely trading opportunities.

2021

Best News & Analysis Provider

FxDailyInfo

2022

Best Forex Educational Resources Global

International Business Magazine

Insights

News

Cryptocurrencies

Bitwise CIO Calls Ethereum The ‘Microsoft Of Blockchains’, Can ETH Make A Comeback?

Source Newsbtc

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan dubbed Ethereum (ETH) the ‘Microsoft of blockchains’, adding that none of the smart contract platform’s challenges are existential.

Ethereum Has Challenges, But None Of Them Are Existential

In a recent memo titled ‘A Contrarian Bet on Ethereum’, Hougan highlighted the tumbling ETH/BTC trading pair, indicating the weakening Ethereum price versus Bitcoin (BTC). At press time, the trading pair is exchanging hands at 0.038, its lowest level in three years.

Compared to some of the other leading digital currencies, ETH hasn’t had an eventful 2024. On a year-to-date basis, Bitcoin is up 38%, while the rival smart contract platform Solana (SOL) is up 31%. Binance’s BNB token has surged by 72% in the same period. However, ETH has remained flat, currently trading at $2,306.

Ethereum’s underperformance in terms of token price, according to Hougan, has made it ‘cool to hate Ethereum right now.’ Hougan noted several factors that might risk the Ethereum ecosystem, including the prospect of Democratic US presidential candidate Kamala Harris winning the election and continuing Biden administration’s suspicious attitude toward everything crypto.

In addition, the Bitwise CIO acknowledged the threats posed by competing blockchain projects, such as Solana, that offer higher throughput and lower transaction costs. He also admitted that ETH exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) haven’t had as much success as Bitcoin ETFs.

Although Hougan acknowledged the success of several Layer-2 solutions such as Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism, he stressed that their success has pulled so much transaction volume from Ethereum that its revenues have crashed to a four-year low. According to Hougan, these reasons are valid but ‘they miss the broader point.’

Hougan stressed that blockchain applications witnessing success in user adoption are all dominated by Ethereum, such as stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi). Over 50% of stablecoins are still issued on the ETH blockchain. Similarly, over 60% of DeFi assets are locked in various ETH-powered protocols.

Hougan Remains Bullish On ETH

In the memo, Hougan mentioned that institutional confidence in Ethereum remains high, as seen in asset manager BlackRock’s decision to develop a tokenized money market on Ethereum this year. Similarly, Nike chose Ethereum to launch its Web 3 gear platform called Swoosh.

He noted:

Ethereum has the most active developers, the most active users, and a market cap that is 5x bigger than its closest competitor. It’s the only programmable blockchain that has a modicum of regulatory support in the U.S., with a booming regulated futures market and a multi-billion-dollar ETF market.

To bolster his argument, Hougan compared Ethereum to software juggernaut Microsoft, saying that even though other tech companies like Google, Zoom, and Slack have offered useful services, Microsoft continues to be larger than all of them put together.

Concluding, Hougan said that Ethereum’s opportunities are enormous. As the world inches closer to the November US presidential elections, the market participants may reevaluate the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap. At press time, ETH trades at $2,306, commanding a total market cap of $277 billion.

Disclaimer: For information purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Recommended Articles

Fed hike odds near 90% into Wednesday's decision — how to trade the dollar, gold and the S&P 500 A 0.3% monthly core CPI print has lifted the market-implied probability of a 25bp Fed hike on 16 September to roughly 86.5% ~ 90%, which would be the first increase since July 2023. Here is the decision timeline, the pricing versus the forecasts, both scenarios, and the key levels for the dollar, gold and the S&P 500.

Author Suzie

Sep 14, Mon

A 0.3% monthly core CPI print has lifted the market-implied probability of a 25bp Fed hike on 16 September to roughly 86.5% ~ 90%, which would be the first increase since July 2023. Here is the decision timeline, the pricing versus the forecasts, both scenarios, and the key levels for the dollar, gold and the S&P 500.

Silver breaks $64 as precious metals rebound — can gold hold the $4,280 line into the Fed decision?Silver has climbed back above $64 an ounce for the first time this week, leading a broad rebound across precious metals hours before the Federal Reserve delivers what is expected to be its first rate hike since 2023. Spot silver was last at $64.64, up 1.49% on the day, while gold reclaimed $4,300 and platinum and palladium both advanced. The question now is whether the bounce is a genuine turn — or a pause before the Fed's dot plot decides the next move.

Author Suzie

Sep 16, Wed

Silver has climbed back above $64 an ounce for the first time this week, leading a broad rebound across precious metals hours before the Federal Reserve delivers what is expected to be its first rate hike since 2023. Spot silver was last at $64.64, up 1.49% on the day, while gold reclaimed $4,300 and platinum and palladium both advanced. The question now is whether the bounce is a genuine turn — or a pause before the Fed's dot plot decides the next move.

Bitcoin falls below $75,000 as the CLARITY Act fails in the Senate — what the vote means for crypto The US Senate blocked the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act in a 49-50 procedural vote, sending Bitcoin briefly below $75,000 — its biggest one-day drop since June. Ethereum fell more than 8%, Coinbase slid 10% and $75 billion of crypto market value evaporated. Here is what the vote was, why it failed, and the levels that matter now.

Author Suzie

Sep 16, Wed

The US Senate blocked the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act in a 49-50 procedural vote, sending Bitcoin briefly below $75,000 — its biggest one-day drop since June. Ethereum fell more than 8%, Coinbase slid 10% and $75 billion of crypto market value evaporated. Here is what the vote was, why it failed, and the levels that matter now.

Dow drops 631 points as the Fed hikes — but futures are rebounding: what's next for US stocks?The Dow fell 631 points and the S&P 500 closed below 7,600 after the Fed hiked rates for the first time since 2023, with the dot plot showing 16 of 18 officials expect more tightening. Asia-session futures are already recovering — here are the levels and analyst views that decide whether 7,500 holds.

Author Irene Q.

Yesterday 02: 54

The Dow fell 631 points and the S&P 500 closed below 7,600 after the Fed hiked rates for the first time since 2023, with the dot plot showing 16 of 18 officials expect more tightening. Asia-session futures are already recovering — here are the levels and analyst views that decide whether 7,500 holds.

Dollar index tops 100 for the first time since July as the Fed's hawkish dot plot sinks in The U.S. dollar index broke back above 100 for the first time since 31 July after the Fed delivered its first rate hike since 2023, with the dot plot showing 16 of 18 officials expect at least one more increase this year. Here are the levels that matter for DXY, the currencies feeling it most, and what to watch next.

Author Irene Q.

Yesterday 02: 45

The U.S. dollar index broke back above 100 for the first time since 31 July after the Fed delivered its first rate hike since 2023, with the dot plot showing 16 of 18 officials expect at least one more increase this year. Here are the levels that matter for DXY, the currencies feeling it most, and what to watch next.

Popular Symbols