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Ether (ETH) volume exceeds Bitcoin (BTC) for the first time on Coinbase
According to Coinbase’s Q2 report, Bitcoin remains the most important cryptocurrency on the exchange platform: it accounts for 47% of the funds stored there. But there is still a clear decline from the first quarter of 2021, when BTC accounted for 62% of assets.
For Ether, it’s the other way around: the native Ethereum cryptocurrency is going from 14% to 24%. If we look at the trading volume, ETH also surpasses BTC for the first time in the exchange’s history.
Of the $462 billion in transactions on the Coinbase platform, Ether in fact accounts for 26%, and Bitcoin 24%. Other crypto assets account for the remaining 50%.
Coinbase explains this breakthrough in Ether trading volume by several factors. For one, the two fastest-growing areas of blockchain at the moment – decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT) – rely heavily on Ethereum. In both areas, ETH is used to settle transactions, which in turn boosts trading on Coinbase.
The other reason is ETH staking services, which were unlocked by Coinbase in Q2 2021. Indistinguishable from Ethereum’s move to Proof-of-Stake, they have apparently met with some success on the exchange platform. As a reminder, currently 6.6 million ETH have been deposited on the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract.
Two months after opening its waiting list for Ether (ETH) staking, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announces that some of its customers can now stake their ETH in Ethereum 2.0.
Customers can earn up to 6% in the form of annualized interest. In other words, if you deposit 100 ETH you can earn an additional 6 ETH after one year. Coinbase charges a 25% commission, which means that the net performance for users will be lower than previously announced.
In theory, the ETH put into play will remain locked up and cannot be withdrawn until the launch of Ethereum 2.0 Phase 1.5, which is until 2022. However, Coinbase plans to offer flexible staking “in the coming months” where users can engage in trading with their staked funds.
Coinbase users can already stake other tokens such as Algorand (ALGO), Cosmos (ATOM), and Tezos (XTZ) and the stablecoin DAI.
While in terms of capitalization and price, ETH of course does not really rival BTC, other indicators show the dynamism of the blockchain. A recent report by IntoTheBlock explained that the fees and number of transactions on the Ethereum network far exceed those of Bitcoin.
Since 2019, ETH holders have also outnumbered BTC holders, and the gap has tended to widen. So if DeFi and NFTs continue to generate the same buzz, Ethereum should continue to pull ahead.