What if Bitcoin is overtaken by Ethereum in market cap?

[LongTimeAgo]

Or any other alt coin for that matter? I'm wondering if and how it would damage/tarnish Bitcoin's reputation as the Gold standard of all cryptos. I believe it may also affect how institutions view bitcoin, and it may even affect the idea of digital scarcity. No longer can we assume that bitcoin (or its usurper) will remain #1 forever, so how can you imagine it as a safe long term store of value or preserver of wealth? Is the idea of true digital scarcity threatened if bitcoin loses it's #1 rank?

For example, I imagine it would be like silver flipping gold's market cap, (which is practically unthinkable)  however, this event would forever alter how gold is perceived, especially by new potential investors.

[GreatArkansas]

Currently, it is already 52.6% market cap of Ethereum before it will flip Bitcoin on market cap (https://www.blockchaincenter.net/flippening/)

Ok, let's do some "what if" here. For me if ever that will happen, Bitcoin will stay, Ethereum will stay. We all know that they have different capabilities, so I don't so that it is good to compare these two. As you said, Bitcoin can be the gold, and Ethereum can be the silver.

Digital scarcity can be also be threatened if Bitcoin loses the top market cap, I can agree with this, there is a possibility as since the beginning Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency, always the highest market cap, and since day 1, always the store of value digitally.

[jackg]

For example, I imagine it would be like silver flipping gold's market cap, (which is practically unthinkable)  however, this event would forever alter how gold is perceived, especially by new potential investors.

Platinum has done that in value per kilo though it has many of the same properties as gold, is less reactive, more conductive and used as a catalyst in a lot of places.

I'm not sure if perceptions changed kuch with that as gold didn't seem to do too much better out of it. Eth might be different though but I think there would be a lot more caution by institutional investors due to the increased potential for vulnerabilities (because it has extra functions).

[mk4]

It could happen and it wouldn't take anything away from Bitcoin; probably besides newbies thinking that it's not the "best cryptocurrency" anymore. If it's the case that it happens, Bitcoin will still remain most secure simply because of it being simple and doing it's one job really well.

In a market where there's peak speculation, it just makes sense for Ethereum to overtake Bitcoin by marketcap(most probably temporarily) simply because you can do a lot more speculation with the Ethereum chain(NFTs and tokens and stuff).

[Poker Player]

What will happen is that Ethereum will remain a centralized, 70% premined piece of shit and vastly less secure than Bitcoin.

Whether we like it or not, it seems to have more growth potential in the userbase because of the speculation potential, as mk4 comments, and that would be the main reason why some authors like Raoul Pal see more growth potential.

Whether that argument is correct remains to be seen, but I'll stick with decentralization and security.

[mk4]

What will happen is that Ethereum will remain a centralized, 70% premined piece of shit and vastly less secure than Bitcoin.

Unfortunately most people wouldn't care about decentralization, until it matters(state level attacks and such). I see a lot of parallels between decentralization and privacy of platforms; whereas a lot of people don't care about their privacy when it comes to the likes of Facebook. Quite an unfortunate truth, but it is what it is.

[Darker45]

The gold standard of Bitcoin in crypto is not based on the market cap I suppose. Bitcoin is crypto's gold because of its features and not because of its price. In the same manner that gold is the standard even if it is not the most expensive, the most rare, the most coveted, and so on of all precious metals and stones.

Ethereum may overtake Bitcoin's market cap in the future but it can never ever replace Bitcoin's features. At the end of the day, Ethereum is just another creation inspired by Satoshi's Bitcoin.

[YOSHIE]

Such cycles are referred to as “flippening” I am not surprised and do not faint when it happens, a phenomenon that often occurs in the crypto market, such as: crypto A overtook Crypto B, but this phenomenon never happened to Ether and Bitcoin, it's been almost 13 years.

From year to year Bitcoin always keeps a good value, you can say digital gold is the main point, Bitcoin is also backed by many big investors around the world, to be used as a crypto asset in their portfolio, so what I want to say is: although Ether wants to overtake Bitcoin's position long enough it can happen, In my opinion, because the largest and largest market capitalization from year to year in crypto asset storage is Bitcoin, so investors trust Bitcoin as the most secure asset in the world than Ether, so if you want to see the phenomenon of Ether replace Bitcoin's position, maybe you need 50 years in the future, but can't guarantee and ensure that it can happen.

So, from now on you save as much Ether as possible, maybe 50 years from now, your dream will come true.

[Mauser]

Never say never, while this might be not realistic today, such a scenario could happen quickly in the future. First of all it would take some prominent investors to push a particular alt coin. ETH might be in a good position right now to eventually break the bitcoin correlation. As long as a drop in bitcoins sends all the other crypto coins down too, it's hard to imagine any coin to surpass bitcoins. But it is just a matter of time for other strong crypto coins to be independent.
If that happens I think we will see a downward spiral for bitcoins. Because many investors just buy bitcoins because it is the largest crypto market. If there is a more successful coin out there I would expect many investors to sell their BTC for that new coin.

[kryptqnick]

Bitcoin currently has 38% share of the total crypto market capitalization. It's a huge share, and while Ethereum gained some ground over the years, it's still only about twice as big as Bitcoin, so I don't find the event the op describes likely. But even if it happens, I don't think it's the end for Bitcoin or anything. I mean, look at Ethereum that's stably been #2. It also grows in price, and overall experiences similar ups and downs to the price dynamic of Bitcoin. So even if Bitcoin were no longer the king of cryptos, it would still be one of the most reputable cryptos ever.

[Ararbermas]

It doesn't matter i guess, i mean there's no changes will happen wherein only that thing and for sure bitcoin will stay number one even though ethereum has a very fast market cap in the market , and i saw many speculation about it and you know a bunch of articles analyst saying that ethereum can surpass bitcoin market cap in the future, so its not surprising anymore and perhaps not a big deal since ethereum is the second of the most trusted projects in crypto.  It's normal in my personal opinion.

[Lucius]

The market cap is just one irrelevant and manipulative way of displaying the value of a cryptocurrency, which should never be important. The price of a digital asset multiplies by the current number of units of that asset and then we get a market cap, and the fact that BTC has just under 19 million coins in circulation, and ETH more than 118 million is enough for anyone who thinks a little.

Probably the owner of that altcoin now regrets not making 200+ million tokens to put him in the first place - but no matter what, altcoins will always be altcoins - although we know many want that altcoin to become the new king and make them rich.

[davis196]

A concept cannot be destroyed by temporary market movements.
The concepts of Bitcoin scarcity and Bitcoin being a store of value cannot be taken away,just because some altcoin is riding the speculation wave and has a bigger market cap.
If we unite all the shit tokens,NTFs,DeFis,etc.,which are living under the Ehtereum blockchain,then yes,Ethereum most likely will have a bigger market cap than BTC in the future.
However,that doesn't make the Ethereum concept better than the Bitcoin Core concept.
It just makes Ethereum(tokens,NFTs,DeFi) more desirable for all the greedy pump&dump investors,who are looking for the next "shiny object".

[OcTradism]

Marketcap is not only indicator to assess quality of one project. A shit coin with huge total supply can have huge marketcap but it does not mean anything about its quality.

Moreover, ecosystem is built around that project is more important. Ok I know both Bitcoin and Ethereum have good ecosystems.

One more thing, how long Ethereum will be able to keep its first position even if it can overtake Bitcoin? It is very important. A short term of overtake does not mean Ethereum is bigger and better than Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is in a first position many years and a few days or weeks lose it to Ethereum won't change a fact that Bitcoin is still a permanent Kind in crypto market.

[Cloutgod]

That'd be massive but I don't believe it will following their continuous outrage in gas fees which limits their users which looks like it might be fixed soon but I doubt it ever will

[wajik-tempe]

Or any other alt coin for that matter? I'm wondering if and how it would damage/tarnish Bitcoin's reputation as the Gold standard of all cryptos. I believe it may also affect how institutions view bitcoin, and it may even affect the idea of digital scarcity. No longer can we assume that bitcoin (or its usurper) will remain #1 forever, so how can you imagine it as a safe long term store of value or preserver of wealth? Is the idea of true digital scarcity threatened if bitcoin loses it's #1 rank?

For example, I imagine it would be like silver flipping gold's market cap, (which is practically unthinkable)  however, this event would forever alter how gold is perceived, especially by new potential investors.

It already happened back in 2018 when ethereum reached it's new all time high that time, it surpassed bitcoin marketcap but just for less than a week.
So i think it's possible for other alts to surpass bitcoin but just for a moment, people still keep trust on bitcoin at the end when the market crash because they know bitcoin won't crash as much as other coins.
If in the future there is a coin that really replace bitcoin not only for a moment but in a long run, i'm sure at that time crypto adoption is already everywhere and the total marketcap would be 10x times from now.

[DaveF]

Market cap is not important in this case. Ethereum platform has an unlimited supply of coins, BTC is locked at 21000000
Eventually no matter what happens you are going to have 1000s if not 100s of thousands more ETH then BTC so even if 1BTC = $250000 and 1ETH =$1 you can predict a future where the market cap of ETH is more then BTC

Or to use an automotive example. The dollar value of all the Honda Accords on the road is going to be way more then the dollar value of all the Lambos on the road. Because every *day* Honda makes hundreds and hundreds more Accords then Lamborghini makes cars in a year.

-Dave

[BlackHatCoiner]

What will happen? I'll simply be even more disappointed with humanity that it will have evaluated a so non-decentralized currency, but that's all. Bitcoin has managed to do its job pretty well from the very first day. It's peer-to-peer, decentralized, censorship-resistant money.

I can't think of another currency that has a better policy other than bitcoin. It's the hardest cash and satisfies the conditions of the greatest, so far, store-of-value asset we've ever witnessed.

So yeah, I'll just be more disappointed with humanity. I don't exclude this as a possibility, but I doubt it'll ever happen.

[btc_angela]

Or any other alt coin for that matter? I'm wondering if and how it would damage/tarnish Bitcoin's reputation as the Gold standard of all cryptos. I believe it may also affect how institutions view bitcoin, and it may even affect the idea of digital scarcity. No longer can we assume that bitcoin (or its usurper) will remain #1 forever, so how can you imagine it as a safe long term store of value or preserver of wealth? Is the idea of true digital scarcity threatened if bitcoin loses it's #1 rank?

You contradict yourself, you said it is gold standard, then how can it be overtaken by an alt coin?

And it has been attempted already, it is called the Flippening (ETH) and Rippening (Ripple), but they didn't succeed. And with the way bitcoin is pegged right now? I doubt that any alt coin can overtake it.

For example, I imagine it would be like silver flipping gold's market cap, (which is practically unthinkable)  however, this event would forever alter how gold is perceived, especially by new potential investors.

Again, I doubt that it will also happen, prime movers like BTC and Gold will remain on the top of the game.

[famososMuertos]

I understand your point but you are enclosing yourself within "four walls," actually if it happens the related financial factors are analyzed, but as for what you mention as reputation, being number one in a certain statistic, etc, it is about the trust that is have in the bitcoin and its strength as a project or  maybe that does not happen with ETH (!?) to stay there in the fight to be second.