5 Cryptocurrencies Getting Crushed By The Current Market Crisis

Ether is the second largest cryptocurrency in the world with a $134 billion market cap. It is the native token of Ethereum, an open-source, decentralized blockchain platform which allows for smart contract optionality, reducing the time and fees it takes to process each transaction. The Ethereum platform is also capable of hosting other cryptocurrencies, and so far 280,000 digital coins have been launched through its ERC-20 compatibility standard, of which 40 make up the top 100 tokens in the world by market capitalization. Many decentralized finance (DeFi) applications have also been built on the platform, such as MakerDAO, Compound, and Uniswap.

Ethereum is expected to roll out an upgrade to its platform called Ethereum 2.0, which will switch the network from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism (also deployed by Bitcoin) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) system, which is used by Litecoin and requires less energy for mining. This backend shift will improve processing times and allow users to build more scalable apps on the Ethereum blockchain network.

In June, Ether (ETH) fell below $1000 for the first time since it gained 386% in 2021, jumping to an all time high of $4,812 in November 2021. It now hovers around the $1,100 mark, and has fallen 70.54% since the start of the year as of June 23.