ETH’s trading volume grew much faster than BTC’s in first half of 2021

The world’s second-largest crypto asset has gained ground on Bitcoin (BTC) in terms of trading volume growth during the first half of this year according to a new report.

Ether’s trading volume grew faster than Bitcoin’s in the first half of this year, according to a new report from leading American crypto exchange Coinbase.

The Coinbase Institutional “H1 2021 in Review” report, released on Monday, acknowledged that the first half of this year has been one of the most active periods on record for crypto, with several new all-time highs in prices, user adoption and trading activity.

Taking data from 20 exchanges across the globe, the report revealed that the trading volume for Bitcoin reached $2.1 trillion for the period, up 489% from $356 billion over the first half of last year.

Ether’s (ETH) total trading volume reached $1.4 trillion, but its growth was much faster, up 1,461% from $92 billion in the first half of 2020. Coinbase remarked that it has been the first sustained period of time ever that Ether’s trading pace exceeded Bitcoin’s.

The research also measured total crypto market capitalization, which began the year at $769 billion, peaked at $2.4 trillion in May, and ended the period at $1.4 trillion, registering a net gain of 86% year to date.

Related: Ethereum has strong fundamentals, so why are pro traders bearish on ETH?

It noted that the bulk of BTC’s gains came during Q4 2020 and Q1 2021 before the crypto asset’s price declined in Q2 2021. It is currently trading down 38.8% from its April 13 all-time high of $65,899.

Ether, on the other hand, saw the majority of its gains in Q2 2021 when it doubled in price to reach an all-time high of $4,357 on May 12. However, it has retreated an even deeper 47.4% to current levels.

The second-most valuable crypto asset appreciated 895% over the 12-month period and 210% over the six-month period ending June 30. Coinbase attributed a number of factors to this including increased usage in decentralized finance, investor optimism in the network’s transition to proof-of-stake, and the rise of layer-two scaling solutions for the network.

In January, Cointelegraph predicted that Ether will become the main asset for investors in 2021. Both BTC and ETH have rallied over the past week, gaining 32.4% and 27.7%, respectively, according to CoinGecko.