Ethereum beats rival crypto networks with trade-offs, Pantera Capital's Krug says

tech.hindustantimes.com:

An explosion in the growth of crypto networks vying to take market share from Ethereum is unlikely to threaten the dominance of the world’s most used blockchain, according to Joey Krug, co-chief investment officer at digital-asset investment firm Pantera Capital. “If you roll the clock forward 10 to 20 years, a very sizable percent, maybe even north of 50%, of the world’s financial transactions in some way, shape or form will touch Ethereum,” Krug said in an interview. Ether, the native currency of Ethereum’s platform, sits among Pantera Capital Management LP’s top three positions across funds, according to Krug. The token is the second largest by market value after Bitcoin. Pantera is one of the earliest digital-asset investment firms and ranks in the top five of crypto-focused funds with $5.8 billion in assets. 

Critics of Ethereum say it has expensive fees and slow transaction speeds as traffic crowds the network. Add-ons, known as layer-2 networks, have emerged as fixes but can be complex to use, or have other disadvantages. 

So-called “ETH-killers” have gained traction with developers who use blockchain technology to build so-called decentralized finance, or DeFi applications. The namesake coins of some networks rose in returns along with use, including Solana and Polkadot. Those coins surged about 7,000% and 150% respectively over the last year even with the recent downturn in many token prices, according to data tracker CoinGecko.

Ether had a breakthrough year itself in 2021, hitting a record high while soaring almost 400%. That came on top of a gain of almost 500% the prior year, and has rekindled speculation that it could one day surpass Bitcoin, which currently has about double the market value of Ether. 

Krug, an