A few short years ago, Ethereum was riding a wave of positivity that kept it relevant, prominent and alive. But today is a different story altogether and in cryptocurrency currently it is estimated that tokens are dying as much as they’re being created. Even more alarming, Ethereum hasn’t been able to remove its head from the chopping block and against the rest of the market, it has had a very weak performance over the last two years.
What Has Changed with Ethereum?
The truth is aside from a few publicised partnerships there doesn’t really seem to have been much change in the world of Ethereum. Ether is a by-product of the Ethereum platform itself and without a large user-base on the Ethereum platform Ether is not an attractive investment.
Ethereum has also suffered a bit of an image problem in that it was introduced to be a viable alternative to Bitcoin and was said to be able to revolutionise the market. The truth is Ethereum just hasn’t changed the state of play no matter how much you dress it up and it has now come under threat from altcoins that are also underperforming.
Ripple (XRP) Is Weak but Is Still A Major Threat to Ethereum
Currently the competition is pretty hot for second spot behind Bitcoin. Battling it out for second spot are Ripple and Ethereum. Earlier this year, Ripple successfully dismounted Ethereum from the second spot position and for a short time it looked as though the competition would get quite lively between the two.
Today, at the time of writing, Ripple is in a big lull and has dropped from 30c to just over 20c. But worryingly for Ethereum, even with Ripple being a wounded animal, it is not a million miles away from reclaiming the second spot.
Even though Ripple is currently trading at over 90% less than its all-time high value it is still applying pressure to Ethereum. Realistically, this shouldn’t be happening. Currently Ripple is another surge away from taking the second spot and the only reason Ethereum is holding that position at the moment is because Ripple is trading so weakly.
Making it Worse, Tether Is Closing the Gap Too
Having already established that Ripple and Ethereum are really only separated by trading values it is really important to note that Tether (USDT) is closing the gap as well and being a stable coin it won’t necessarily (it shouldn’t at least) have the pricing issues that Ripple and Ether have. In short it should always trade around the $1 mark and it means that all it needs to do to continue pushing toward Ripple and Ether is keep up the supply rate.
Given it is so new to the market, Tether could surpass Ripple within the next twelve months and if Ethereum has failed to break out meaningfully, or worse if the price drops further, Tether could be second place by 2021.
Ethereum Needs A New Lease of Life
Using an Ethereum platform metaphor it is currently running out of gas and the developers need to breathe new life into the platform and encourage serious and affluent corporate clients to use the platform. The more money that is in circulation on the platform the better its prospects.
If it ever loses the second spot, Ethereum could find it is on the slippery slope into obscurity or worse, dead altogether. Losing the second spot will crush investor confidence – remember everyone was told Ethereum was a Bitcoin killer – that seems like a lifetime ago now.
