The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has referred to Bitcoin as “digital gold” and Ethereum as “digital oil” in a recent report by Matthew Siegel, head of digital assets at VanEck. The report praises the top two cryptocurrencies by market cap and acknowledges the strong market demand for digital assets, which is driving innovation in the sector. The ICBC draws comparisons between Bitcoin and gold, noting that Bitcoin retains scarcity similar to gold through mathematical consensus while also solving issues related to divisibility, authenticity, and portability.
Furthermore, the report highlights Ethereum’s ecosystem and refers to it as “digital oil” due to its smart contract platform’s various characteristics. Despite acknowledging some shortcomings in the network, the ICBC believes that technological advancements will address these issues over time. Ethereum’s continuous upgrades in security, scalability, and sustainability are noted, along with the introduction of Turing completeness through its programming language (Solidity) and virtual machine (EVM) that allow developers to create complex smart contracts and applications. The flexibility of Ethereum has been recognized in decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and is expanding into physical infrastructure networks (DePin).
Bitcoin’s current trading price is $66,502, down 5% in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum is trading at $3,464, down more than 6% on the day. Looking ahead, the ICBC report suggests that Ethereum developers will focus on finding a balance between sustainability, security, and efficiency. The report emphasizes the importance of staying informed by subscribing to email alerts and following the ICBC on social media platforms like X, Facebook, and Telegram for the latest updates in the digital asset space. Overall, the report signifies the growing recognition and potential of Bitcoin and Ethereum as valuable digital assets with distinct characteristics likened to traditional commodities like gold and oil.
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