Flippening debate of Ethereum vs Bitcoin to resurface post-Merge?

Once upon a time, in Cryptoland, the word “flipping” was thrown around on a daily basis. The term is often-discussed slang for Ethereum’s potential to “flip” Bitcoin’s market cap and become the world’s largest cryptocurrency. But lately, there hasn’t been much talk of a new king, as the following Google Trends data for the search term “Flippening” shows.

In terms of price action, 1 ETH, which was close to 0.09 BTC before Christmas, is now worth 0.06 BTC. As is customary in the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin has held up better than smaller markets as the whole market wobbled in 2022. in most of the pandemic bull run.

Bitcoin strength

However, this reflects Bitcoin’s strength more than Ethereum’s weakness. In the previous risk-off period, Bitcoin cratered and sent the rest of the market down. In 2022, we see a slightly different picture. The stock market is off to its worst start since 1939, and Bitcoin is down only 16% YTD in USD terms.

This represents significant growth for cryptocurrencies and clear progress towards their goal of being a store of value. Of course, the 16% drop is still a terrifying return and far from a store of value, but the improvement from a historical perspective is worth noting.

merge

As Ethereum has struggled since the start of 2022 (like all financial assets), the flippenning story has quieted down. Also contributing to this is the Merge timeline, which has been repeatedly postponed. Alongside other network updates such as sharding, Ethereum’s long-awaited pivot to Proof of Stake is expected to improve the network’s scalability and tackle one of blockchain’s biggest complaints: cumbersome gas fees.

Ethereum’s predictions are heavily contingent on the outcome of this update, the biggest for the network since Vitalik Buterin made it. However, with a merge looking imminent, most market commentators are expecting it later this summer, but don’t be surprised if Ethereum once again appears at the forefront of crypto headlines.

When the merger comes and goes smoothly, there are no roadblocks or excuses. The time has finally come for Ethereum to do just that and show if it has the guts to challenge Bitcoin again.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is worth $742 billion, while Ethereum is less than half that at $342 billion. But don’t be surprised if you come across the term more often as Merge gets a little closer.