Ethereum (ETH) more popular than Bitcoin (BTC) in Singapore?

In Singapore, Ethereum (ETH) is more popular than Bitcoin (BTC). That is claimed by the report “The State of Crypto in Singapore Report 2021”, conducted by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, in collaboration with Seedly and CoinMarketCap. 

The report

According to the report, it seems that one of the most crypto-friendly countries in the world, Singapore prefers smart contract cryptocurrencies par excellence. The survey was carried out on a sample of 4,348 respondents from June to July 2021.

Basically, the results show that Ethereum is the most popular asset with 78% holders, followed by Bitcoin with 69%, Cardano (ADA) with 40%, and Binance Coin (BNB) with 31%. Ripple (XRP) and Tether (USDT) are also popular with 25% holders among investors.

Through the survey, Gemini also found that among the 4,000+ respondents, 67% are also cryptocurrency investors and that of these, only 20% would be women.

To define the typical Singaporean cryptocurrency investor, the report states that they should be a “29-year-old male with an average annual household income of about 51,968 Singapore dollars ($38,456) per year.” 

Different, however, is the data collected in another survey conducted by Independent Reserve (Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index – IRCI – Singapore 2021) last month. The study, in fact, revealed that 43% of respondents who said they own cryptocurrencies, 82% own BTC, and only 49% ETH, followed by 30% Litecoin (LTC), 24% XRP, and 15% LINK. 

Singapore, Ethereum, and Bitcoin: the crypto-friendly country

Although the popularity percentages of Ethereum and Bitcoin may differ from survey to survey, Singapore remains the most crypto-friendly country in Asia.

In fact, with China banning operations revolving around cryptocurrencies, Singapore has seen even more growth in the cryptocurrency sector by welcoming the very businesses and platforms that had to leave China. 

Not only that, at the beginning of 2021, even the Bank of Singapore came out in favor of cryptocurrencies claiming that Bitcoin could easily represent traditional investment assets like gold. 

Mansoor Mohi-uddin, the bank’s chief economist, had precisely written that this could happen because the queen of cryptocurrencies has a supply limited to 21 million BTC, while other assets can always be printed and produced. 

And it is no coincidence that Gemini itself wanted to conduct this survey in Singapore. In fact, to attract new Singaporean users, the cryptocurrency exchange is offering a week of trading on its platform at zero commissions. 

Bitcoin and Ethereum always compared 

It’s no news that the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are always compared. In fact, on the level of performance this 2021, Mike McGlone, the Senior Commodity Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, has also spoken out.

According to McGlone, if Bitcoin followed Ethereum’s performance this 2021, its price could reach $100,000. 

Basically, ETH’s price surge in 2021 has seen significantly higher numbers than BTC on a performance level alone. But why doesn’t this clear difference cause ETH to outperform BTC?

Simple, because they are two clearly different projects. Ethereum is the first blockchain of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) that are exploding this year. At the same time, Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency of big investors. 

BTC on-chain transaction volume is for values over $1 million. The performance of the queen of cryptocurrencies lies precisely in the increase of this type of transaction that from September 2020 to today has increased from 30% to 70%.