Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has been overtaken by Polkadot and its native cryptocurrency, DOT, as the sixth largest cryptocurrency by market value.
Polkadot has a market cap of $7.63 billion, according to CoinGecko, a crypto-currency market capitalization aggregator. It ranks sixth now by market cap, relative to the $6.35 billion market cap of Bitcoin Cash. The short time frame it took for Polkadot to achieve this stage is what has inspired everyone. Polkadot is under one year old.
Co-founder Gavin Wood published a revised road map for the new year as Polkadot was reaching this milestone. Wood also provided a collection of figures on the network's growth and its achievements. Using DOT grant initiatives and the DOT treasury, over 200 projects were sponsored. The network accounts for over 1 billion DOT, which accounts for 63 percent of the circulating supply of coins.
What is Polkadot?
Many sites for smart contracts aspire to be a 'Ethereum killer' one day. But a new approach is being taken by Polkadot. In total market cap, Polkadot has exceeded every other Ethereum rival, including big time players like Cardano and EOS. It is not that Ethereum wants to compete with the network. Instead, for quicker and cheaper features, Polkadot wants to serve as a bridge between the network where Ethereum apps and assets can be 'wrapped' into the Polkadot ecosystem.
For the smart contract ecosystem, Polkadot aims to serve as a layer-two scaling solution. Polkadot is only communicating with Ethereum applications and properties so far, but aims to extend and integrate other tools for blockchain.
Bitcoin Cash keeps on floundering
For Bitcoin Cash, it's been a tough few years. It has recently broken free from its lowest rates of all time. There has not been a lot of hope surrounding the currency, however. Bitcoin Cash went through yet another hard fork in November that split the chain into two distinct and unique chains. This hard fork represented yet another split in the community while still claiming to be the 'real' Bitcoin by many of its supporters.
A rising tide such as the rise in BTC prices will typically raise all boats, especially in the cryptocurrency world. But in BCH's case, it seems like it is overlooked by the crypto community and investors as a whole. In the meantime, other ventures such as Ethereum are rising year-on-year by over 500 percent and hitting multi-year price peaks. It's hard to tell whether Polkadot's sixth place acquisition reflects DOT's success or BCH's disappointment.
Not really sad news. It is just the way market goes. BCH is pushing to become a currency. DOT is aiming to achieve something different. Market cap is not such an accurate measurement of projects.