Cardano (ADA) has overtaken the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin as the most-held cryptocurrency on the popular eToro trading platform during the second quarter of the year after seeing a 51% rise compared to the previous quarter.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, saw demand for it move up 42% during the same period according to CityAM. Simon Peters, a crypto market analyst at eToro, reportedly said the growth and use case potential for Cardano’s native ADA token attracted investors.

Cardano added the ability for developers to launch native tokens on its blockchain earlier this year after the launch of the much-anticipated Mary hard fork, and is set to allow developers to build and deploy smart contracts on its network through a major upgrade called Alonzo, which will allow decentralized finance applications to be deployed on the network.

Peters said:

This upgrade will be significant as it will enable developers to build projects on the network, helping Cardano to position itself as a real ‘competitor’ to the likes of Ethereum.

The Alonzo hard fork is part of the network’s “Goguen” era, named after Joseph Goguen, an American professor of computer science from the University of California and the University of Oxford. The Goguen era comes after the Shelley phase, in which Cardano became a decentralized blockchain and community members became validators.

It comes at a time in which over 70% of ADA’s circulating supply is staked and after the cryptocurrency moved up exponentially over the last few months. Ethereum, which to some is being threatened by Cardano, saw its popularity rise 79% ahead of the London hard fork, which will alter the fee structure on the network.

The London hard fork is another step in the path towards Ethereum 2.0 and will make Ethereum a less inflationary asset. To some, if demand gets high enough it could even become deflationary, as transaction fees will be burned. Peters noted:

Cryptoassets have had an exciting year, with big milestones achieved in terms of price movements and increased institutional investment signalling more adoption by the traditional financial services ecosystem

In the second quarter of the year, other cryptoassets also saw their popularity explode on eToro. TRON’s TRX and Ethereum Classic (ETC) moved up 163% and 161% respectively compared to the first quarter of the year.

Peters noted that investors stopped focusing solely on BTC and ETH as they can only own a fraction of these coins with their investments, and instead moved to lower-priced coins.

DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
IMAGE CREDIT
Featured Image via Unsplash.com