In a couple of months, Ethereum should fully deploy its Proof-of-Stake (PoS) capabilities with “The Merge”. The network continues to dominate the decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) sector, some of the most important innovative trends in the crypto industry.
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At the time of writing, Ethereum trades at $3,200 with a 6% loss in the last 24-hours.
ETH with moderate losses on the 4-hour chart. Source: ETHUSD Tradingview
ETH’s spot as the blockchain holding popular sector continues to be put into questioning as the “Ethereum Killers” gain market share. Cosmos and its ecosystem have been attracting attention as Terra and Osmosis become more popular.
Recent data posted by monitor Token Terminal suggest Ethereum’s daily protocol revenue has been migrating towards Terra (LUNA) and Avalanche (AVAX). As seen below, this metric saw an increment back in October 2021.
ETH’s daily protocol revenue peaked in November that year and began a downside trend from around $80 million to below $20 million. Token Terminal noted the following on this trend and the impact of the upcoming “Merge” on stopping it:
And the past 90 days the rate of change in revenues is also slowing. AVAX, Luna and some other protocols are taking market share! The merger may flip this trend.
Source: Token Terminal via Twitter
In that sense, Token Terminal wonders if Cosmos could become the fastest growing blockchain and outperform Ethereum on these terms. In favor of this thesis, the monitor pointed out the explosion in the Cosmos ecosystem and the time it has taken for it to reach its current adoption levels. Token Terminal said:
(…) what are the odds of Cosmos eventually outgrowing Ethereum? Just consider how long it has taken for L2s to go live versus the pace at which new IBC-enabled chains are going live.
Ethereum To Keep Its Spot As King Of DeFi?
Unlike Ethereum, the protocols build with Cosmos infrastructure (CosmosSDK) seem more flexible and with potentially fewer tradeoffs than if they were built on layer 1. By using this development kit, the project can create “a blockchain that’s dedicated to the asset exchange use case”.
Token Terminal claims this provides the project with more optimization and with tools to improve upon Ethereum’s limitations. As seen below, the Cosmos ecosystem records important growth since 2020.
Source: Token Terminal via Twitter
As NewsBTC reported, two experts believe the opposite. Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes and Senior Commodity Strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence Mike McGlone are bullish on Ethereum going into “The Merge”.
Hayes believes that this will set ETH to a 5-digit price and re-take the market share it has lost from the “ETH Killers”. Hayes argues that Ethereum is still the most active blockchain in terms of development and this event will only accelerate this innovation process.
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McGlone agrees and predicted ETH’s price could reach similar levels around $10,000. The Bloomberg Intelligence expert believes Ethereum is becoming internet collateral with strong support for future appreciation of its DeFi and NFT dominance.
