Analysts at the American investment bank JPMorgan believe that bitcoin can compete with gold as a store of value, but will give way to ether in the long term.
According to JPMorgan experts, the difference between BTC and ETH is that at this stage, Bitcoin is more likely to be classified as “consumer goods”. It can compete with precious metals and be seen as a store of value.
On the other hand, analysts have called ether the “core” of the cryptocurrency economy, which can serve as a medium of exchange. Recall that last week the bitcoin rate fell to $ 46,930. Later, it recovered to $ 56,000, but then dropped again. Today, bitcoin is traded for about $ 54,000. At the same time, the ether reaches new records, and today it has updated its next maximum, reaching $ 2,790.
JPMorgan commented on the situation, saying that the cryptocurrency industry was hit hard by a liquidity shock in the derivatives market last week. This resulted in major liquidations of positions. Compared to ether, bitcoin has suffered much more. The liquidation of long positions in bitcoin was 23% of the expected open interest, while the rate of ether for the same period was 17%. Analysts believe that by doing so, the ether has proved to be more stable. In addition, ETH does not have the same dependence on the derivatives market as Bitcoin, added JPMorgan.
They cited another reason why Ethereum could take first place in the long term – the high demand for the Ethereum blockchain. This network is widely used to build DeFi applications and non-fungible tokens (NFT). The high fees on the Ethereum blockchain are due in large part to the increased activity in DeFi and other platforms based on it. In addition, the full launch of the Ethereum 2.0 update could also increase the chances of ether to rise to the first line in terms of market capitalization.
However, despite upbeat announcements about Ether, JPMorgan is gearing up to launch a Bitcoin investment fund to meet the demand for BTC from its customers.
