Ethereum rallies 12% to regain status as second largest cryptocurrency

Ethereum suffered humiliation in the latter stages of 2017, being overtaken by the controversial Ripple in terms of market cap, but Vitalik Buterin's smart-contracts platform has now regained second spot after rallying 12%

Ethereum has regained its status as the cryptocurrency with the second largest market cap, overtaking Ripple after six weeks of being in third.

After a 12% rally, Ethereum’s market cap now stands at $15.8 billion. Ripple, despite a 3% move to the upside on Wednesday, has a current market cap of just $14.9 billion.

Ripple (XRP) overtook Ethereum in mid-November, an event that was celebrated by the XRP community, many of whom believed it would soon rival Bitcoin for top spot.

Ethereum’s rally is due to the anticipation of a series of upcoming hard forks. Ethereum Classic Vision will be airdropped to Ethereum holders at a ratio of 3:1 on January 11th. The Ethereum Nowa fork, meanwhile, is planned on January 12th.

ethereum chart

Both events are leading to Ethereum’s Constantinople update on January 16th, which according to developers will “usher in a new wave of distributed ledger technologies.”

The Constantinople update will make Ethereum faster and less expensive. The ultimate goal is to follow Vitalik Buterin’s vision and move from a Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake protocol.

After forming a bottom in December, when Ethereum’s price hit a yearly low of $83, the cryptocurrency has rallied over 70%, making it one of the best performing digital assets in the space over the last month.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.

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