- The number of addresses holding at least 1 DOGE has jumped 20 percent during the last quarter.
- Altcoins dominated the second quarter pushing Bitcoin dominance under 45 percent.
For the majority of 2021 so far, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have been in the limelight. However, the market correction in the last two months has eroded investors’ gains to a great extent. But there are two altcoins – Dogecoin and Ethereum Classic – that have registered triple-digit growth for the second quarter of 2021.
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) have been the show-stealers in the last quarter. As per data curated by CoinMetrics analysts, DOGE and ETC have delivered 400 percent and 300 percent returns respectively.
The interesting thing here is that Dogecoin’s stellar returns come despite the 66 percent drop from its all-time high. On May 8, the Dogecoin (DOGE) price had touched $0.74. At press time, DOGE is trading at $0.19 as the eighth-largest crypto by market cap.
The number of addresses holding at least 1 DOGE surged by 20 percent during the second quarter. The number jumped from 3.07 million on April 1 to 3.7 million on June 30. Most importantly, while Bitcoin and Ethereum were seeing a drop in address activity during June last month, Dogecoin reported a surge in the active addresses.
Polygon’s MATIC emerged as the third-best performer with 227 percent returns. While altcoins did exceptionally well, Bitcoin (BTC) closed the third quarter with a negative 38 percent return.
Well, it is clear that Q2 was the quarter for altcoins with the crypto-space eating into the market share of Bitcoin. Back on April 1, Bitcoin dominance in the overall crypto space was a massive 65 percent. This dropped to 45 percent by the end of June 2021.
Bitcoin miner migration beneficial to the community
The Bitcoin price crash happened as the world’s largest crypto has been facing major headwinds amid the China crackdown. The BTC hashrate came crashing by more than 50 percent from its all-time high in May as several Chinese miners plugged off their mining rigs. In its blogpost, CoinMetrics notes:
This decline in BTC hashrate is temporary and it “should eventually recover once miners start to power back up in their new locations”. The data provided added that this “won’t happen overnight since it will take time to build and set up enough facilities to accommodate the sudden influx of new demand.”
Analysts at CoinMetrics also believe that the Bitcoin miner migration shall prove to be beneficial for the long term. It noted:
Over the long-term this mass migration should be largely beneficial as it will help Bitcoin hash rate get further distributed around the world, and remove the previous concentration in China. It could also help improve Bitcoin’s environmental impact since miners in some regions of China relied on coal.
Ethereum network showing solid strength
At the start of the second quarter i.e. April 1, Ethereum was trading at around $1900 levels and surged to its all-time high of $4400 by mid-May. However, it ended the quarter correcting 50 percent from its ATH.
As per CoinMetrics, the solid surge in retail interest and the rise of NFTs fueled the Ether price rally. Thus, the number of addresses holding at least 0.1 ETH shot from 4.58 million to more than 5.20 million.
Also, a report from Messari shows that the Ethereum network has settled $2.5 trillion during the second quarter. The report further adds that the Ethereum network holds the potential of settling $8 trillion by the end of 2021.
In Q2 2021 Ethereum settled $2.5 trillion in transactions.
This represents +65% QoQ and +1,490% YoY, and puts Ethereum on pace to settle $8 trillion in 2021. pic.twitter.com/w97YSdwIgo
— Ryan Watkins (@RyanWatkins_) July 14, 2021
The credit for this growth goes to DeFi and stablecoin activity happening on the Ethereum blockchain.
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