Welcome to this week's edition of Overbit News.
In the first story of the day, we look at how Bitcoin's dominance of the overall cryptocurrency market cap is dwindling as its nearest competitor, Ether, crushes through the $3,000 level.
The rise of Ether indicates that as the sector progresses, there will be more than one winner among digital tokens. According to tracker CoinGecko, Bitcoin currently accounts for roughly 46 per cent of the overall crypto market share, down from approximately 70 per cent at the start of the year, and Ether accounts for 15 per cent. Although Bitcoin remains the most common cryptocurrency, the momentum in other tokens is gaining traction.
Proponents argue that consumers are becoming more comfortable with a range of tokens, while detractors say that the sector suffers from a stimulus-fuelled mania. "Ethereum is rising, and not much seems to be in its way," Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda Corp., wrote in a note Friday, adding that other tokens were also seeing "fresh interest."
Other cryptocurrencies have also increased in value. According to CoinGecko, the price of Binance Coin has risen by 3,460 per cent in the last year. Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that began as a joke in 2013 but has since become a social-media darling lauded by Elon Musk, has risen 15,000 per cent to a market cap of about $50 billion.
To continue with our Ethereum news, Ethereum's 27-Year-Old Co-Creator Is Now the World's Youngest Crypto Billionaire. Vitalik Buterin, the man behind the Ethereum blockchain's launch in 2015, has become the world's youngest crypto billionaire at the age of 27. Buterin's ether address, which he revealed as his primary ether wallet in October 2018, currently holds 333,520 ETH, worth $1.09 billion at the ether price of $3,278 1:30 p.m.
Since the beginning of the year, the value of Ether has risen significantly, owing mainly to the growing popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications that seek to replace conventional financial intermediaries such as banks and insurance firms.
According to the data aggregator DeFi Pulse, more than $72 billion is now invested in DeFi protocols, many of which are built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. However, Ethereum is being challenged by Binance Smart Chain (BSC), the blockchain infrastructure created by the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, which has been handling more than 8 million transactions a day since late April (Ethereum is just over 1 million).
Buterin was reportedly born in the town of Kolomna, just outside of Moscow, in 1994. He was raised in Toronto after moving to Canada with his family. Buterin cofounded (and wrote for) Bitcoin Magazine with Mihai Alisie, who later joined Buterin in founding Ethereum in 2012, when he was 18 years old.
Buterin received the prestigious Thiel Fellowship in 2014, which awards $100,000 to young people under the age of 23 to explore interests outside academia (instead of going to college or university). The fellowship is supported by billionaire Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and a Stanford University graduate.
Only time will tell which altcoins will look like ‘the next Ethereum’ in just a few short years.
As always, thanks for reading Overbit News and good luck in the market. Have a great week.