On Wednesday, that interview With BlackRock CEO Larry Fink going viral as the CEO describes Bitcoin as an international asset. Not only that, Fink also referred to digital assets like Bitcoin as a way to digitize gold on the blockchain. This statement from the CEO has since been interpreted in various ways to mean that Fink referred to BTC as digital gold. So now the question remains, if Bitcoin is digital gold, then which cryptocurrency is digital silver?
ETH is digital silver?
The argument for digital gold over Bitcoin continues but with Ethereum being the second largest and most popular cryptocurrency on the market, it is often dubbed “digital silver”. Over the past seven years, its performance has also fueled claims that Ethereum is silver to Bitcoin’s gold.
There have been previous claims that Litecoin qualifies to be referred to as digital silver. Most of these claims are rooted in the fact that the mechanism of Litecoin is basically identical to that of BTC. However, in terms of performance, it fell short compared to ETH, which is now the biggest competitor to BTC.
One area where Litecoin tends to outperform Ethereum is when it comes to supply. While Litecoin undergoes halving events every four years like BTC to reduce block rewards and has a maximum supply, Ethereum has none of these things. The unlimited supply of ETH has always been a concern as this means that the digital asset can be an ever-inflationary asset. This, until the implementation of the ETH burn, was intended to reduce the rate of circulation of new coins.
information from Ultrasound money, a website that tracks the rate of ETH burn and issuance, shows that instead of increasing, the supply of ETH is now decreasing at a rate of 0.33% annually. This development removes concerns about inflation in ETH, giving more credence to the fact that Ethereum is digital silver.
ETH price resting above $1,900 | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com
Bitcoin vs Ethereum, which is better?
The debate over which is the better choice between Bitcoin and Ethereum is still going strong, especially on social media platforms. However, each of these digital assets is unique in its own way and serves different functions in the market.
While Bitcoin continues to carry the torch as the leading cryptocurrency, garnering massive support over the past decade, Ethereum has, in its own right, pushed the concept of decentralized finance (DeFi).
The use of smart contracts in the latter has helped developers create financial products that investors can leverage to manage their wealth without the need for a middleman. Although this ability is gradually being developed on Bitcoin as well.
At the moment, both digital assets serve different aspects of the market. However, this could easily change in the future.