The Bitcoin price was able to gain some momentum. In the meantime, Ethereum or the Ether token overtook Ripple and its XRP token and climbed back to second place among the crypto currencies with the highest market capitalization.
A lukewarm positive breeze is blowing on the crypto market in the new year. Not only is the Bitcoin price increasing somewhat, the rest of the crypto market also looks good so far. Ethereum was thus able to overtake Ripple again and climb to second place among the crypto currencies with the largest market capitalisation.
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Ethereum (ETH) back on 2nd place ahead of Ripple (XRP)
Even if their use cases differ greatly at times, the two projects Ethereum and Ripple are still fighting for second place in terms of market capitalisation. The Ethereum project under Vitalik Buterin provide the blockchain basis for Smart Contracts and dApps. The ether token serves as a means of payment. It gained 8.5 percent in the last 24 hours. At 147 US dollars, it has a market capitalisation of 15.3 billion US dollars.
This enabled Ethereum to overtake Ripple again. Ripple, on the other hand, wants to revolutionize international payment traffic. Ripple uses the XRP token to do this, but it never tires of pointing out that this is a company on the one hand and a means of payment on the other. Be that as it may: with a market capitalisation of 14.9 billion US dollars, Ripple or the XRP token is once again in second place. The Ripple price (XRP) is currently 0.36 US dollars. It has risen by 2.37 percent in the last 24 hours.
What is behind ETH’s rally?
Most probable reason for the good start of ether in the new year is the upcoming Constantinople upgrade that is bound to happen around January 16th. Most prominent change this upgrade will bring is decrease of ETH’s inflation rate, from 3 ETH to 2 ETH per block. Also, market appears to believe that ethereum bottomed out and it is safe to buy back in which is a nice place to be – ethereum is now considered as the closest to the optimum low risk, high reward buy.
Bitcoin still in first place
The unbeaten winner in terms of market capitalisation (and fame) is still the godfather of all crypto currencies. The Bitcoin exchange rate is currently just under 3,846 US dollars. In the last 24 hours it rose by almost 2.5 percent. Bitcoin’s market capitalisation is currently just under 67.1 billion US dollars. Even if it was announced differently in the past: So far, Ripple has been unable to push Bitcoin off the throne.
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