“Ethereum is the Microsoft of Blockchains”

While ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, seems to be unpopular at the moment, Bitwise reported that the token’s performance could reverse towards the end of the year.

The asset manager added that ether has barely changed since the beginning of the year, while bitcoin (BTC) has increased by 38 percent and Solana’s SOL token has increased by 31 percent in the same period.

The report highlighted that ether’s recent underperformance is due to risks related to the US presidential election in November, competition from Solana and other blockchains, challenging tokenomics, and the introduction of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US.

Bitwise noted that the majority of stablecoins are hosted on Ethereum, over 60% of all decentralized finance (DeFi) assets are locked on the blockchain, and popular prediction market Polymarket is also hosted on the layer-1 chain.

Bitwise’s chief investment officer Matt Hougan called Ethereum the “Microsoft (MSFT) of blockchains.” While everyone wants to talk about startups and game-changing technologies like Google (GOOG), Slack (WORK) and Zoom (ZM), “Microsoft is still far bigger than all of them,” Hougan said.