Cryptocurrency prices have traded mostly sideways this week after a recent surge – even after bankers have predicted a “seismic” financial shift towards crypto products.

Chief executive of advisory group deVere has said he expects ether to continue to outpace bitcoin and has set up and coming token, Cardano, a September price target of $3. CEO Nigel Green said “Cardano is now just behind the major headline grabbers bitcoin and ethereum” in comments emailed this week. “I believe cardano will reach all-time highs in the next month.” he added. 

This is due to “three main drivers” pushing the price higher. These drivers include a broader market rally, a September upgrade that will give Cardano smart contract functionality similar to ethereum, and Cardano’s green energy credentials when compared to bitcoin and other similar energy-intensive cryptocurrencies.

Green is continually bullish on Ethereum as well. He points to the “higher level of real-use potential” for the underlying network. The long-awaited Ethereum network upgrade, designed to make its blockchain more scalable, sustainable and secure, was begun late last year and isn’t expected to be completed until well into 2022.

“Ethereum is more useful than Bitcoin and has tech advantages over its better-known rival. Ultimately this will mean that its value will exceed that of bitcoin – probably with five years.”

So why will Cardano outpace Ethereum? And can the same rationale of a superior underlying technology be applied?

While both Bitcoin and Ethereum use ‘Proof of Work’ as a method of transaction verification, Cardano uses a method called ‘Proof of Stake’. Bitcoin and Ethereum’s system has been widely criticized recently because of its high energy consumption, and while it is super secure, it is also slower and more expensive than other ways of validation transactions – specifically proof of stake.

This being said, Ethereum plans on moving to a proof of stake system with Ethereum 2.0, but this timeline has been filled with ambiguity. At the moment the Ethereum blockchain is congested and transactions are expensive. Time will tell if Ethereum can keep pace, or if Cardano will overtake the long-time market giant.