Ether hit a new all-time high Thursday on bullish news that the European Investment Bank had issued its first-ever digital bond on the Ethereum blockchain.
The underlying cryptocurrency of the ETH blockchain rallied to fresh highs of $2,774 in the European session. The gains came as it became undeniable to crypto investors worldwide that Ethereum is capturing the attention of mainstream financial institutions.
The world’s second-largest crypto has managed to steal bitcoin’s limelight over the past few weeks. In April alone, ETH has climbed 40% versus a 7% drop for BTC.
Bitcoin has dominated the crypto space for the past 1000 days or so, logging a 73% peak dominance at the end of last year. Over the past three years, BTC dominance has never dropped below 50% until now; it has now plunged to levels not seen since the 2018 bull market cycle, indicating that altcoins could be slowly taking over the crypto market.
The fact that ETH and other top altcoins such as BNB, XRP, and ADA are on the rise as bitcoin struggles could point to the official start of altcoin season.
Could Bitcoin’s Time Be Done?
As ETH closed in on $2,800 earlier today, BTC, the most valuable digital coin, slipped about 3% to trade below the $54K level.
The BTCUSD pair is now down over 16% from its lifetime high above $64,000 seen earlier this month. BTC, which is now 12 years old, has managed to fend off all newcomers in the crypto space to date, but one analyst suggests that the king coin’s time at the top could be coming to an end.
Fahad Kamal, the CIO at UK private bank Kleinwort Hambros, expressed doubts on whether BTC would still be around in ten years. He compared the flagship cryptocurrency’s situation to the tech boom of the late nineties.
Kamal argued that BTC is a dinosaur compared to the emerging third-generation blockchains such as Cardano and Binance Chain. The CIO sees the energy conundrum bitcoin faces, which sees it consume more annual energy than Sweden, as a significant contributor to its breakdown.
Other issues include the hostile stance many financial watchdogs and governments are taking on the coin, as recently demonstrated by tougher regulations coming from Turkey.
An Overwhelming BTC Bull Run Is Expected
Despite the current decline, BTC has still had a stunning run, rallying nearly 90% so far in 2021. The rise has been buoyed by mounting adoption from institutional investors and corporate buyers like Microstrategy and Tesla.
In the coming days and weeks, altcoin capital could flow back into bitcoin, driving the world’s top cryptocurrency even higher and restoring its market dominance.
