Ethereum Overtakes MasterCard And Bank Of America In Market Cap As Investors Look Forward To PoS Transition

With the crypto market seeing a brief upswing as of late, prominent digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) have all performed well.

Ethereum in particular, the second biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, has actually seen its value remain over $3k for many days now, allowing its market capitalization to officially surpass that of traditional financial organizations such as Bank of America and MasterCard.

On the right track but a long way to go

Notwithstanding its recent climb, Ethereum remains well behind other major financial companies like JPMorgan Chase. Nevertheless, this specific banks market capitalization pales in comparison to Bitcoin, which is presently worth more than $840 billion.

Moreover, the Ethereum market cap has since increased by over 10% in the previous week to more than $375 billion as of the time of this writing. This growth also correlates with the assets value increasing by around 11% to its current price of more than $3,000. This is entirely understandable considering that recent reports indicated that huge sums of ETH withdrawals frequently preceded an increase in the coins price. This is clearly what is happening right now, since over 180,000 units of Ethereum were taken from various cryptocurrency exchanges about two weeks ago.

Another bullrun on the way?

In an attempt to comprehend what is driving Ethereums current price in its upward movement, some crypto analysts have speculated that the upcoming Ethereum Merge is attracting investors in droves.

As such, the highly anticipated change of the Ethereum network from a Proof of Work (PoW) system to a Proof of Stake (PoS) network will make the asset even more appealing to institutional investors who may be holding back due to worries about energy usage and environmental concerns. However, with the networks PoS update, more investors are likely to come into Ethereum.

Simultaneously, the network may be able to gain control of the NFT and DeFi spaces from other smart contract-oriented blockchains such as Avalanche, Cardano, and Solana. Still, as is so often the case in this sector, only time will tell what will happen as Ethereums rivals are experiencing success in their own right, particularly Charles Hoskinsons Cardano.