What is Ethereum? A look into its light and darkness...

December 4, 2024. The price of Bitcoin (BTC) finally exceeded $100,000 (approximately 15 million yen) per BTC. Although there was a temporary profit-taking movement after that, it remained stable at over 15 million yen.

At one point it exceeded 16 million yen. In response to this movement, Ethereum (ETH), which had been sluggish, finally began to rise in price. Investors who had held ETH for a long time must have breathed a sigh of relief. As of December 1, 2024, the market capitalization ranking of cryptocurrency stocks is as follows.

1st place: Bitcoin (approximately 143,507,680,576,750 yen)

2nd place: Ethereum (approximately 45,177,910,538,673 yen)

3rd place: Tether (approximately 14,415,049,706,266 yen)

Looking at the figures, the market capitalization of BTC, which is in first place, and ETH, which is in second place, is more than three times larger. This trend is even greater in Japan, where, according to the "Top Crypto Assets by Spot Trading Volume in October 2024" published by the Japan Cryptocurrency Exchange Association (JVCEA) on December 3, the total amount of crypto assets traded in Japan is 894,067 million yen for BTC and 116,278 million yen for ETH, a difference of nearly eight times.

However, when looking at crypto assets as a whole, BTC accounts for 57% and ETH for 12.6%, and these two brands alone account for nearly 70% of the market share, so we cannot ignore their existence. What is it that creates such a large gap between ETH and other altcoins?

In conclusion, the appeal of ETH other than its financial assets continues to attract people's attention. Many people in Japan understand ETH to be the name of a crypto asset, but "Ethereum" is the name of a platform for incorporating something using blockchain technology into a service, and the name of the crypto asset used on the Ethereum chain is "Ether".

ETH's high market share is largely due to this platform function. Currently, most of the functions that support the social infrastructure expected in the Web 3.0 area began with the invention of Ethereum.