Ether, the official cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, has overtaken bitcoin as the most exchanged cryptocurrency last week, media reports said. Bitcoin’s reputation as the most popular cryptocurrency is under threat for the first time ever.
It was confirmed that Ether has surpassed bitcoin in daily active address by Santiment, a crypto analytics company. This indicates that a growing number of investors are drifting towards Ether.
One possible reason for this could be China’s crackdown on bitcoin mining in the country amid growing environmental concerns.
Recently, Brazil’s federal police arrested Bitcoin Banco Group president Cláudio Oliveira on the charges of embezzlement. It is alleged that the self-proclaimed ‘King of Bitcoin’ embezzled $300 million through a cryptocurrency scheme.
“Police investigations also revealed that the investigated person also committed, in the past, crimes of the same nature in the United States and possibly in other European countries. The investigative work in the field also made it possible to identify people suspected of concurring in the commission of the crimes under investigation,” Brazilian Police said in a press release.
Central American country El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele recently announced the country’s plan to make bitcoin a legal tender in the country. Not only that, Bukele has now attached incentives for those dealing in bitcoin in the country, contrary to crypto restrictions in other parts of the world. He said that bitcoin has a market cap of $680 billion dollars and if even 1 percent of it is invested in El Salvador, that would increase its GDP by 25 percent.