Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin doesn’t think there’s much of a future in crypto. But why would vastly different cryptocurrencies mirror Ethereum’s 85% plummet in value? Here’s why Vitalik Buterin’s remarks say more about his crypto than anyone else’s.
Ethereum Is Down And Everyone Knows it
In 2017, Bitcoin fell from 85% of the cryptocurrency market cap to 43% of it. Why? Because Ethereum (ETH) rose from a little above $7 in January 2017 to a high of over $1,400 by the following year. Was Ethereum, a blockchain of its own on which exist many other successful coins, the future of cryptocurrency?
Perhaps Bitcoin‘s critics were too hasty. At the time of writing, Ethereum’s price is below $200. And it hasn’t been this low since the summer of 2017. Like the stock market, the cryptocurrency market is subject to fluctuation. But Ethereum’s story seems to be one of steady, unignorable decline. In May, ETH was worth over $800. Since then, it’s price has continued to drop.
A lot of Ethereum’s success was based on the value of the network rather than the coin itself. In other words, people paid for ICOs with ETH, which drove its price up. In 2017, the world saw an unprecedented number of ICOs, and Ethereum’s price rose accordingly. But this year, several companies that had held ICOs sold their ETH. Couple general fear about the crypto market’s decline and SEC regulations and you get fewer ICOs and a continual drop in Ethereum’s price.
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin Predicts That All Crypto Will Stagnate
The crypto community is in an uproar because Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has foreshadowed the end of cyrptocurrency—entirely based on his own demise.
More specifically, the Ethereum founder says that the days of 1,000% growth are over. In his opinion, this is because crypto has tried, and failed, to gain wider adoption. In other words, people aren’t using cryptocurrency as a means to trade. Looking exclusively at the massive Ethereum cash out, this appears to be true.
For this Ethereum founder, this means that crypto has hit a ceiling. A lot more people know about cryptocurrency than they did last year when Bitcoin and Ethereum skyrocketed in value. This will translate to fewer gains for those already invested, following his line of analysis.
Crypto and Ethereum Don’t Share a Future
When a cryptocurrency you founded reaches a low it hasn’t seen since 2016, you, too, might foresee an apocalypse. But cryptocurrencies are not created equal. In essence, Ethereum and Bitcoin were built with different functions in mind. Ethereum focuses on smart contracts and is updated with EIPs. Its cryptocurrency, ETH, is supposed to power the Ethereum network, rather than serve as a currency itself.
In other words, Vitalik Buterin has never been big on cryptocurrency as currency. Rather than a revelation, Buterin’s prediction that cryptocurrency’s value is tapped out because it isn’t a means for trade isn’t far from Ethereum’s original premise.
And for the prediction, cryptocurrency will never hit 1,000% growth again? ETH, a cryptocurrency with a value tied to ICOs, may not. But other currencies can, and undoubtedly will, rise to fill its place in the crypto market.
For instance, there are several cryptocurrencies that represent energy coming from solar power. Though the cost of energy fluctuates, it’s essential to modern life. In other words, energy-backed cryptocurrency will never be worth nothing. If anything, this relatively new concept could experience an 1,000% increase in value.
The founder of Ethereum just predicted his own demise, not yours. Some of the world’s biggest and most innovative companies are investing heavily in blockchain technology and developing their own cryptocurrencies. Ethereum may never attain its former value because it was never worth that much, to begin with. But we’re only just beginning to see what blockchain and cryptocurrency can do.
