Why You Should Be Paying Attention to Ethereum
Cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm. Since 2013, the value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation has soared from $1.6 billion to more than $1.6 trillion at Wednesday's prices, and roughly $1.4 trillion of that value was added in the past year, according to CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has been the leader of the pack, thanks to its first-mover advantage as the original cryptocurrency. However, in recent months, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) has stolen Bitcoin's thunder. In the past year, Ethereum has gained roughly 1,600%, while Bitcoin is up 300%.
Ethereum has caught fire for a number of reasons, but the most important aspect of the Ethereum network is its use of smart contracts. These smart contracts built on the Ethereum network are spurring a couple of innovations that give Ethereum its value: decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), whose popularity should be closely followed by investors.
Source Fool.com
