Ethereum challenges Bitcoin for the top crypto spot

Bitcoin supporters (a.k.a maximalists) made bold predictions for Bitcoin ($BTC) to reach $100K by the end of 2021. Instead, it reached a high of $69K before finishing the year at $47K — up 49% in 2021.

Will 2022 be the year it breaks $100K?

What’s the big deal? Bitcoin had one of its worst performance in the past 11 years — even underperforming some 2021’s largest stocks, including Alphabet (Google).

• Bitcoin saw its lowest return in the past 11 years — excluding 2014 and 2017 (bear markets where BTC was down 56% and 72% respectively).
• Investors also saw less volatility holding Alphabet than Bitcoin — Alphabet’s biggest drop was 19% while Bitcoin fell by over 50% from April to July.

Taking over BTC: Bitcoin’s crypto market share fell from 68% at the start of 2021 to 44% today — losing ground to emerging competitors:

• Ethereum ($ETH) — second largest crypto by market cap — gained 386%.
• Binance Coin ($BNB) — third largest crypto by market cap — gained 1,191%.

Unlike Bitcoin — with limited use beyond being a store of value — both ETH and BNB’s blockchain technology have several uses.

With a $895M market cap — nearly the size of Meta (Facebook) — Bitcoin is maturing, albeit unstably. And it is not immune to the law of large numbers — as the asset grows in size, returns diminish.

Prediction time: Going into 2022, we share some predictions from crypto analysts:

• Bitcoin will outperform the S&P 500 — Crypto research firm, Arcane Research.
• Bitcoin will hit $100K by July — Managing Partner of crypto lender, Nexo.
• Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin again — Digital asset strategists at Fundstrat Global Advisors.