Ethereum [ETH] overtakes XRP to become second-largest cryptocurrency on the charts

The New Year 2019 has started off with frantic movement in the cryptocurrency industry. On January 2, the first major development of the year occurred with Ethereum [ETH] overtaking XRP on the cryptocurrency charts. XRP, which had held the number 2 position for several weeks, has ceded the position to Ethereum, which has been steadily growing over the past couple of days. The price spike also saw Ethereum trade for $143.9, while XRP was trading for $0.36.

At the time of writing, Ethereum was growing by 6.5%, with a market cap of $14.884 billion. The take over was close with XRP, growing at just 1.27%, held a market cap of $14.678 billion. What makes the takeover significant is the fact that prior to this event, XRP had a lead of more than $4 billion over Ethereum in terms of market cap.

Ethereum also held a 24-hour trade volume of $2.357 billion, a majority of which was shared by OEX and OKEx, two popular cryptocurrency exchanges. OEX had a hold on $164.911 million worth of ETH while OKEx oversaw 3.21% of all Ethereum trade taking place on the platform.

XRP’s trade volume was much lesser compared to that of Ethereum, standing at $430.973 million. XRP’s volume was held by its usual favorite, ZB.com. The cryptocurrency exchange had a grasp on 11% of the total XRP trade, with Bitbank coming in at second place.

Ethereum was also in the news recently when its co-founded Vitalik Buterin was asked by Tron’s Justin Sun to help him review the Tron white paper. This move also stirred the ecosystem with Misha Lederman, a Tron enthusiast stating:

“A developer as gifted as @VitalikButerin should most definitely consider to start working with a visionary, entrepreneur, CEO, student of history & politics, under Jack Ma & many others, such as @JustinSunTron in order to jointly grow blockchain adoption & technology together.”