Ethereum On Course to Become First Blockchain to Handle $1 Trillion in a Year

The explosive growth of DeFi (decentralized finance) in the third-quarter has paved way for the Ethereum (ETH) network to handle over 2x the quantum of daily transaction volume on Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain.

As per crypto market info aggregator Messari, the 30-day moving daily average of Ethereum transaction volume is presently $7 billion. However, Bitcoin blockchain handles only below $3 billion.

If there is no change in the ongoing trend, Messari forecasts Ethereum will turn into the first public blockchain to process $1 trillion worth transactions in a calendar year.

Ethereum’s earlier high transaction volume year, in comparison to Bitcoin, was in 2018, when it handled $500 million in volume, representing 59% of Bitcoin’s $849 million transaction volume in that year.

Bitcoin is on course to record its second robust year behind 2018, forecast to handle $800 million. It should be remembered that the comparison between Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains is like comparing apples with organges.

While Ethereum transactions include smart contract based deals related DeFi i.e with denominations other than ETH, Bitcoin transactions purely involve cryptos denominated in BTC.

Messari’s Ryan Watkins ascribes a major share of Ethereum’s volume surge to a rise in ERC-20 stablecoin volumes with the major portion of Tether (USDT) transactions now happening on Ethereum and yield farming led demand causing a growth of over 600% for MakerDAO’s Dai stablecoin.

Watkins also pointed out the exponential growth of on-chain liquidity provided by decentralized exchanges, with Uniswap and Curve recording an aggregate of over $20 billion in volume in September. DEXs now account for over 13.6% of total exchange volumes.

Nevertheless, Messari forecasts “the next twelve months could come to define the platform wars” in crypto, noting Ethereum’s ongoing high fees as a problem that rival blockchains will seek to solve, alongside “the rise of parallel DeFi ecosystems.”

“Look for all would-be ETH Killers to continue to empty out their treasuries to build a parallel DeFi sector throughout the end of 2020 and beyond.”

Earlier in August, Chris Burniske, an associate at PlaceHolder Capital, claimed that Bitcoin and Ethereum are on a race to take the trophy for the first crypto to attain a market cap of $1 trillion.