Bitcoin has held the title of the top cryptocurrency on Earth for almost a decade. However, a weak summer of 2021, a drop in the market dominance index and the London hard fork on the ETH network are increasingly prompting speculation about a new market leader. Experts have no doubt that both coins will show strong growth over the next few years. At the same time, they prefer ether at a wide distance. The same position is held by British giant Standard Chartered, which is betting on altcoin.
The bank's CEO Jeffrey Kendrick is confident that even despite the further rise of BTC and ETH, altcoin looks much more promising. The entrepreneur said that Ether is an analogue of a local financial market. A large number of unique projects, such as lending, insurance and the NFT sector, are created and operate on the ETH blockchain due to a well-developed infrastructure. The development of individual projects on the ether blockchain gives an impetus to the growth of quotations of the coin itself. With constant upgrades and updates, the platform is becoming the center of industry education, which already occupies a significant place in the digital asset industry.
At the same time, bitcoin's specialization is not expanding, and significant updates are extremely rare. Moreover, ether has become on par with BTC in terms of its deflationary component, which is already affecting institutional interest in the alt. The Standard Charter is confident that in the future, the growth rate of ETH will greatly exceed that of the bit. Analysts of the bank are sure that in the long run, BTC will reach $175,000, while ether quotes will rise to $35,000. Financiers believe that the current growth of ETH is held back by the complexity of the ecosystem, which continues to evolve and improve, as well as by a vague development plan. At the same time, many experts believe the transition to version 2.0 protocols is the beginning of the end of bitcoin as the dominant force in the market.
In the long term, ethereum is beginning to outperform bitcoin, but in the medium term, bitcoin continues to be the leader. Low fees, high transaction speeds and advanced infrastructure will be fully realized within a few years. That is why the dynamics of long-term holders in the ETH network significantly outperform the short- and medium-term audience.
At the same time, at the current stage ether continues to correlate with BTC, which was clearly demonstrated in the market decline on September 7. The coin rebounded by 16% and made a bearish breakout of several important milestones, then the fall stopped at a key support zone. Now the cryptocurrency is in the consolidation stage, as well as the audience update, as the moment to enter the asset now is extremely profitable. In the short term, the coin needs to make a bullish breakout of $35,000 and then accumulate enough volumes to consolidate above $39,000. The onchain activity of the coin shows upward dynamics, which indicates the beginning of the recovery period and the subsequent upward movement. While the short-term charts indicate a consolidation phase, the weekly technical analysis suggests a decrease in demand for ETH, which in the current situation suggests a stabilization of the situation. The RSI indicator is back to 60 and the stochastic is showing a clear weakening of the buying audience due to the strong bearish pressure and the futures market drawdown. At the same time, MACD is signaling the continuation of the upward movement after a period of consolidation.
Ether's main rival managed to reach the support zone at $46,400, after falling 14%. In the short term, bitcoin's situation is similar to ether: consolidation, recovery and a new audience. The nearest resistance zone for the coin is $50,00, where massive profit taking took place. If the crypto's current position worsens, the nearest support zone will be $42,600. This may be affected by the break of the medium-term trend that will provoke the quotations to fall again to the key support zone. However, given the strong rebound and the growing number of unique addresses, this scenario is unlikely. The weekly chart of bitcoin looks less encouraging with the RSI falling below 60 and the MACD showing signs of weakening. It is likely that the situation will stabilize after the retail audience is more active and behaves more reasonably.
