Analysts of the US-based financial advisory firm The Motley Fool recently drew attention to two altcoin projects. Let’s take a look at what the analysts had to say…
Analysts focus on the leading altcoin ETH
Over the past decade, cryptocurrencies have not only gained legitimacy as an asset class. At the same time, new use cases of technology have created entirely new markets. One of these markets is decentralized finance, better known as DeFi. DeFi exposure, one of the main uses of cryptocurrencies today, is a necessity rather than a choice. For those who want to invest in DeFi, the choice is relatively simple, according to analysts. Because the most striking option is Ethereum.
According to analysts, the core of Ethereum’s appeal is its smart contract function. Ethereum was the first blockchain to introduce this groundbreaking feature in 2015. It allows developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) on the Blockchain. These applications run autonomously once deployed. Thus eliminating the need for intermediaries to ensure the completion of the contract.
Ethereum; It hosts a wide ecosystem of innovative applications such as decentralized exchanges (DEX), wallets, NFTs, automated market makers and much more. Since 2020, the DeFi environment has experienced explosive growth, and Ethereum has led that growth. To gauge how Ethereum has become the leader of this market, we need to look at a metric known as the total value locked in (TVL). TVL represents the total amount of money a Blockchain supports in DeFi. It also serves as a measure of the popularity and adoption of the network.
Ethereum offers many functions
The total TVL of the entire DeFi market today is slightly less than $48 billion. At one point, it was valued at $172 billion amid the crypto bull market. Of the current $48 billion, $27 billion is backed by Ethereum. This accounts for more than 57 percent of all value in DeFi. Although Ethereum faces competition from new networks that claim to offer higher speeds and lower fees, its presence in DeFi remains unique. Blockchain, which comes after ETH in terms of TVL, is Tron, which has a valuation of $5.6 billion.
Ethereum’s strong community, proven technology and reliability make it an ideal choice for developers looking to launch decentralized applications. Over the past few years, these Ethereum developers have announced many upgrades, including The Merge, which helps foster further growth of the network and create a solid environment to support more use cases. More upgrades are on the horizon. Therefore, according to analysts, Ethereum’s dominance over DeFi is likely to increase further.
Another altcoin under the spotlight is Cardano
Another coin on the analysts’ list was Cardano. Right now, everyone is wondering if it will be bullish for the altcoin. But that moment may come soon, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson. It is certain that Cardano has achieved remarkable success in the last five months. For example, trading volume has increased by more than 205 percent to date. But the real success in 2023 was in the field of DeFi. There have been new product launches such as a new stablecoin and new product innovations such as Cardano Bitcoin, a token designed to enable the use of Bitcoin on the Cardano network. This led to the growth of the Cardano DeFi ecosystem.
More DeFi activity means higher total locked value (TVL), an important metric tracked directly by investors. As a result, Cardano has seen a splash in TVL this year. This immediately caught the attention of investors, as TVL is a publicly measured and tracked Blockchain metric. At a glance, it is possible to see how Cardano compares to other networks. Cardano’s TVL is currently at a 10-month high, and all signs point to this metric increasing in the future.
What are the upcoming changes?
In his video update, Hoskinson discussed several pending moves that he thinks could provide a big boost to the Cardano ecosystem. One is Cardano’s efforts to reduce overall regulatory risk. Long story short, if the US Securities and Exchange Commission decides that Cardano is a security, it’s game over. That’s why Cardano tries to be as decentralized as possible. For this, it is going to change the governance structure. Analysts point out that we’ve heard most of this from Cardano before. But will it really be different this time?
Analysts said, “Last year, we heard how successful Cardano has been in the NFT space. But Cardano is still only third in the NFT market. In fact, with the recent success of Bitcoin NFTs, Cardano risks falling behind Bitcoin,” he says. Also, despite all its recent successes in DeFi, Cardano still only ranks 17th among all networks. However, analysts believe it makes sense to buy and hold Cardano in the long run. The following statements are included in the analysts’ report:
In the long run, I continue to see Cardano as a “buy and hold” investment. As they say, slow and steady wins the race. Also, Cardano has some clear upside potential. Even if Cardano only hits $1, that’s almost triple the return on your investment, given the current $0.37 price. But for Cardano to outperform Ethereum and Bitcoin, you may need to hold it for a long time. From what I’ve seen, Cardano can be a great way to diversify your portfolio while gaining some upside potential in the long run. But don’t expect Cardano to be a rocket ship to the moon in 2023 or 2024.
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