Ether is the native token of the number one decentralized network known as the Ethereum Blockchain. The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether has a following that may even be stronger in some ways than that of Bitcoin.The Ethereum blockchain happens to be the building block upon which a range of Stablecoins, dApps, DExes and NFT Marketplaces are built on. Investors who bought into Ethereum five years ago are currently up more than 270-fold.
Ether has been one of the most consistent cryptocurrencies in every bull market since the project was founded. However, there is more to Ethereum than how it performed in the past. Ethereum’s future potential lies behind its significant plans to expand utility and adoption. It is far from reaching its full potential and below are some reasons why you should ape into it.
Influence & Relevance In The Market
A significant factor that guarantees the presence of ETH as a major cryptocurrency is the fact that there are over 499,000 ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum network. These tokens are entirely dependent on the Ethereum network and have to pay their gas fees in ETH. Thus, these nearly half a million tokens create significant demand for ETH, and they also make sure that the Ethereum project won’t simply die down as ERC-20 tokens have a combined market cap of nearly $200 billion. ERC-20 tokens include well-known cryptocurrencies such as Shiba Inu, Chainlink, Wrapped Bitcoin, Tether, USD Coin, DAI, Decentraland and Basic Attention Token.
Consensus Layer
Ethereum is planning a set of significant upgrades to its network, formerly called Ethereum 2.0. The upgrade will significantly reduce the amount of power the Ethereum network consumes. The ‘merge’ upgrade (switch to Proof-of-work) is likely to happen later in 2022 or 2023, and this upgrade would definitely drive the price of Ethereum even higher when completed.
Ethereum’s Wide Adoption
Ether has already become the primary payment method for the rapidly growing non-fungible token (NFT) market. Ethereum also has inserted itself as a necessity in the Metaverse. Axie Infinity, The Sandbox and MANA are the payment methods for their respective Metaverse worlds, all of which are ERC-20 tokens. If the ambitious plan to make the Metaverse mainstream succeeds, or if NFTs keep becoming more popular, ETH will directly gain from it. The most significant stablecoins are also ERC-20 tokens that are dependent on the Ethereum network. These stablecoins themselves are becoming important worldwide payment methods due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies.
Ethereum’s Safety
Another factor that makes ETH a good investment is safety. According to Etherscan, the Ethereum network currently has a hash rate of over 1,000,000 GH/s, making it one of the safest networks. This combination of safety and profitability makes Ethereum a better investment choice than Bitcoin.
Ethereum’s strong emphasis on innovating will steadily make it the lingua franca of crypto. Bitcoin’s lack of complex smart contracts, lack of solutions for environmental concerns and lack of a dedicated team will make it harder for Bitcoin to compete. There are many cryptocurrencies other than ETH that are already proof-of-stake and support complex smart contracts(ie Avalanche and Solana). However, none of them can match Ethereum’s prominence.
