- Native tokens of smart contract protocols made traders more money than Bitcoin.
- Smart contract platforms are gradually increasing their share in the cryptocurrency market.
- Smart contract data storage costs have risen exponentially, especially for Ethereum.
KOLKATA (CoinChapter.com) – Cryptocurrency traders had more success trading smart contract protocol tokens in September than Bitcoin. Smart contract protocols expanded their market share significantly. And this picked the attention of bullish daytraders looking for quick profits.
Related: Cardano halts after smart contract launch, but ADA flashes bullish signs.
Smart Contract Tokens Amongst Best Performing Cryptos
As per crypto-centric investment management firm VanEck, September saw smart contract tokens rule the roost in digital asset trading activity. In detail, 4 out of the top 5 best performing cryptocurrencies with a $1 billion-plus market cap were native tokens of these blockchain applications building platforms.
Dropping Dominance Of Ethereum
VanEck defines smart contract platforms as “open-source blockchain protocols designed to host a variety of self-developed and third-party apps.” The definition also includes the largest smart contract blockchain Ethereum. But Ethereum alternatives/killers attracted a lot more attention from market participants than the former.
Related: Bitcoin smart contracts protocol Stacks shoots up by 20%; what’s next for STX?
“While the Ether price is down 30% from its peak, competing smart contract platforms such as Avalanche, Cosmos, Solana and Algorand all released a number of DeFi applications in September, which have attracted a combined $15B in additional deposits. In contrast, the value of ETH deposited in DeFi protocols fell $15B in September.”
noted VanEck in the column
One reason for the departure from Ethereum smart contract ecosystem to competitors is the rising data storage costs on the public blockchain.
“Wow, 1 GB of smart contract data on Ethereum costs today. USD 373.38 Million”
said DFINITY founder, Dominic Williams
Dominic cited a ProDerivates report to substantiate his claims. According to the report, Ethereum storage costs for 1 GB of data approached the $900 million mark during the height of DeFi and NFT activity in May 2021.
Smart Contract Tokens Preferred Over Bitcoin
Overall smart contract tokens trumped Bitcoin as far as returns are considered. VanEck quoted data from the leading crypto market observing platform, Messari, to supplement their findings.
“according to Messari, the data provider, the market-cap weighted last 30-day return among 82 smart contract platforms is 12% vs. the MVDA down 5%.”
MVDA stands for the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 Index and represents large-cap layer one crypto assets.
Also, there was an observable rise in the overall market share of smart contracts against other crypto categories such as store-of-value, stablecoins, payments, etc.
But Bitcoin’s Back For October
Bitcoin reversed losses from September by logging 23% gains since the beginning of October. With the latest upside move, the top cryptocurrency has risen more than 6 billion percent since the first BTC/USD price ticker appeared in 2009.
Related: Bitcoin up 6,000,000,000% since launch
The BTC/USD pair resumed its uptrend again on Friday amid rising bullish sentiment. Prices rose nearly 5% during the early morning London session as bulls seem resolute to claim back the $60,000 resistance. The majority of the Bitcoin buying activity came from institutional investors looking to beat inflation and confident stock traders who opined that the worst is behind.
Plus, long-term Bitcoin investors resumed accumulation after the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) approved an ETF that covers shares of companies holding the top crypto asset on their balance sheets. San-Francisco-based firm Volt Equity will manage the shares of 30 companies, including Tesla, PayPal, Coinbase, MicroStrategy.
But what’s the extent of the renewed momentum? Has the next leg of the Bitcoin bull market already begun? That remains to be seen.
