BTC Won’t Lose Top Spot Despite ‘Merge’: Hiro

• The CEO of a blockchain firm told Insider why he believes bitcoin can’t be caught by rivals.

The crypto market is finding its feet after a severe crash spanning May and early June.

It remains unclear whether a sustained recovery will be seen from here, or just a pause before a further fall, but each week that passes without further panic selling increases confidence that the worst may be over.

Therefore, attention will gradually turn to the future shape of the market, and one of the key questions is whether ethereum will become the number one crypto, or whether bitcoin’s position as the largest digital coin is unassailable.

Bitcoin has a market capitalization of around $440 billion and makes up about 42% of the total market. Ether, meanwhile, has a market size less than half that right now, according to CoinMarketCap.

But ethereum supporters have a strong case. Blockchain remains dominant in terms of Web3 activity, with defi (decentralized finance) and NFT markets gaining widespread use, although there has been a dip during the recent downturn.

The other big reason for optimism over ethereum’s prospects is the long-awaited “merger” that is expected to go through in September.

This will merge the proof of work network with the new proof of stake version. This removes mining in favor of staking, and is expected to push the price up because the large number of tokens paid to miners will no longer be sold on a daily basis. It is also expected to pave the way for major increases in performance and scalability in the future.

Bitcoin advocates are not convinced by the merger, and ethereum’s claim to be the number one crypto soon.

Among them is Alex Miller, CEO of blockchain firm Hiro. He argues that bitcoin can maintain its lead because the key applications that run on ethereum can also run on bitcoin using the Stacks protocol and other similar technologies.

Miller expects the use of Web3 protocols defining lending platforms, decentralized exchanges (DEX) and NFT marketplaces on Stacks, and by extension bitcoin, to accelerate. This will feed into the price of the coin over time, helping to preserve its market value.

“As blockchains like Stacks become more prominent, they create a stronger ecosystem around bitcoin, which only brings innovation and more opportunities for developers and users,” he said.

“There’s a bunch of stuff going on in bitcoin via Stacks already. I think the merger doesn’t do much to actually improve the developer experience. It’s not going to revolutionize what you can build on top of that.”

“It will be medium good for ethereum’s price, but honestly I think it’s less about the technology behind it and more just about increased security. This has been going on for five or six years now, so the future potential I think is largely priced in .”

Miller also pointed to the “Bitcoin Odyssey” project as a reason to be optimistic that bitcoin will become a Web3 platform rather than just a coin.

Investors including the folks behind Stacks and crypto exchange OKCoin have put together $165 million in funding aimed at making bitcoin competitive as a platform for defi and other app development.

When it comes to the state of the crypto market and bitcoin price, Miller struck a relaxed tone and unsurprisingly for someone heavily involved in crypto, he is comfortable with the recent volatility.

“What happened to the market was similar to what you saw in 1999 to 2001, where you had a slump and massive corrections in the overall technology market. It was just a matter of time, right. There were a lot of weird things going on,” Miller said .

“The crash clears out things where fun games are played, but there’s still a fundamental value to these things. It may fall more, but it’s still fallen less than in previous crypto winters and downturns, right?”

Bitcoin has fallen around 75% from top to bottom this time, while ethereum fell around 80%. While these numbers are dramatic, they are much smaller than the 95% drop seen in previous cycles. Miller said this is indicative of a maturing asset class.

While noting that no one can say for sure what price will do next, Miller added that he sees a period of consolidation over the next few months as likely, with price hovering between $15,000 and $30,000 for a while before going further to new heights.