Recent research has indicated that Ethereum has ‘blown past Bitcoin’ in terms of daily settlement value, which is a testament to how much economic activity has increased on the network.
Messari researcher, Ryan Watkins, recently posted his findings stating that a quarter ago, Ethereum had just about reached parity with Bitcoin in Daily settlement value. A quarter later, Ethereum has blown past Bitcoin.
For the first time ever, Ethereum is now settling more value on average per day than Bitcoin. For the measurement of this metric, Ethereum includes all ERC-20 tokens, including the stablecoin juggernaut, Tether, whereas Bitcoin only includes USDT issued on Omni.
The DeFi liquidity mining craze has driven the momentum for Ethereum usage since it serves as the foundation for the embryonic industry. Each day this month, DeFi total value locked has hit new all-time high, and today is no different as it reaches $3 billion, according to Defipulse.com.
The surge in settlement value is mostly down to stablecoins, however, and 2020 has been a big year for them too. Not only has Tether issuance surged to top $9 billion – a 125% increase in market capitalization this year alone – but others have followed.
USDC and Dai have both increased with USDC issuance climbing to over $1.1 billion, with $250 million USDC going into Compound. Dai issuance increased $72 million, with more than $78 million also going into Compound, Watkins stated, adding;
“All said Ethereum accounts for more than 65% of all stablecoins issued, and more than 85% of stablecoin transaction value,”
DeFi platform Curve has also added to the stablecoin frenzy as it can significantly reduce slippage on stablecoin swaps, which has made the platform superior to centralized exchanges and OTC desks for stablecoin trades.
A similar chart posed by Watkins indicates that USDT itself could surpass Bitcoin in terms of daily transaction value.
“USDT may soon surpass Bitcoin as the dominant currency on public blockchains. In Q2 2020 Stablecoins had another historic quarter and were at the center of the DeFi boom.”
He added that in absolute terms, Tether contributed the most by far, growing $3.5 billion, becoming the first stablecoin to breach the $10 billion mark.
The Ethereum network may now hold this accolade, but it, and the many other fundamental factors, have yet to be reflected in ETH prices, which are still lackluster around the $235 level. A public testnet and renewed hopes of ETH 2.0 launching this year may be the only things to move the markets.