ETH or ETC? The battle for supremacy in Asia is unfolding

The underlying battle between the Ethereum and Ethereum Classic networks appears to have shifted to the Asian market. After Bitcoin and Litecoin, ETH and ETC have now become the two most well-known altcoins in Asia, especially in China, where Chinese market players are trying to grab more market share. However, after recent trends, it is unclear which of them will have the upper hand in the long term.

On April 30, ETC’s price on South Korea’s largest exchange, Coin One, showed an increase, while trading volume surged to as high as 1.5 million — a nearly 10-fold increase, which has resulted in ETC’s price slightly exceeding $6, giving its supporters a reason to believe that ETC is a better choice than ETH at this point.

While these are based on recent moves by ETC, ETH has also soared, now exceeding $80 - trading activity for ETH, the cryptocurrency currently ranked second only to Bitcoin in market value, seems to be very active in China.

Ethereum Classic

Grayscale Investments recently launched the first private fund ever to invest in ETC, with a size of $10 million. ETC also recently capped the supply at 210 million, making it finite and easier to evaluate as the market develops further. CoinMarketCap data shows that ETC's current market value is about $600 million, making it the sixth largest. Each block is rewarded with 5BTC, and the reward is reduced by 20% every 5 million blocks until it reaches the 210 million cap. So it's no surprise that ETC has risen after this fund was established.

From the perspective of those who trade cryptocurrencies in general, the belief that Bitcoin will continue to rise over time while altcoins will grow proportionally faster is somewhat correct. At ETC’s meager $6, it still has room to rise.

Although some industry insiders still believe that ETC needs to find an orthodox use case or value proposition to maintain its price growth, rather than always using the excuse of "blockchain immutability". Grayscale describes ETC in its introduction book as "a next-generation blockchain platform for a new Internet infrastructure" - a way to greatly improve the sharing of information and value in the digital economy, unlocking trillions of dollars of untapped economic surplus in the process. "If this proves to be good, it will mean that others who think ETC is undervalued will sooner or later find the value of ETC.

Ethereum

ETC's trading volume is now third, behind Bitcoin and ETH. It still ranks behind ETH in the market. Ethereum has been trying to move beyond China, its largest market in Asia, to other countries such as Taiwan and India, which is organizing the first international blockchain hackathon with the Ethereum Foundation.

As the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) is gaining traction, some Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges, including OKCoin, have indicated plans to support ETH trading. If this happens, it could cause China to compete with South Korea for the ETH market, which would surely drive ETH up again.

Some meetings about Ethereum and the EEA were also held in parts of China in April. Coupled with China’s interest in blockchain technology and the involvement of many large companies, the Ethereum platform may be able to seize the opportunity and use Asia as a perfect base for development.

While Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin speaking Mandarin can attract a lot of attention, ETC has important Chinese investors behind it, including Guo Hongcai.