UTRUST is a cryptocurrency payment app that has just announced the integration of Ethereum Classic (ETC). The last few weeks have been good to ETC. Coinbase’s announcement that it would begin selling Ethereum Classic on its two platforms greatly increased ETC trading volume and saw a concurrent rise in price. And while UTRUST is not as large or visible as Coinbase, ETC’s inclusion on the payment app could be similarly significant to those buy Ethereum Classic.
What Can Ethereum Classic Do on UTRUST?
UTRUST is a payment app. This is important for understanding this piece of news. Like its parent token Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic is both a currency and a utility token. People who buy ETC have voting rights, the ability to fund transactions, and numerous utility use cases. They also have the ability to spend ETC as money…if they can find someone who will accept it.
Ethereum Classic made its reputation as a smart contract platform. Like Ethereum, Ethereum Classic plays host to dApps, ICOs, and a diverse stable of smart contracts performing actions around the world. ETC can also be used as money, but this latter use case is not as well known, mostly because other cryptocurrencies are so much more popular.
Now that ETC is on Coinbase, this is starting to change. We believe that the #1 cryptocurrency of the next healthy crypto market must be successful as a cryptocurrency – it must be useful as money. There are numerous non-currency tokens in the market which may be successful, but few have a use case which will make them truly universal, at least anytime soon.
With integration into the UTRUST app, Ethereum Classic makes itself much more useful as a currency, a status which could elevate its popularity and price in the short-to-medium term. We don’t imagine a future where Ethereum Classic is #1 in the space, but moves like this could further buoy its industry clout.
Ethereum Classic Against the Other Altcoins
A year ago, few would have predicted that Ethereum Classic would be setting itself apart from the other altcoins. Still, ETC is not assured anything resembling market dominance. Its most obvious competitor remains Ethereum, which is much more widely accepted as money, even after this UTRUST announcement.
Furthermore, Coinbase is on the verge of adding many more cryptocurrencies. Some analysts predict that NANO and 0X will be among the first. NANO’s utility as a payment solution could eclipse gains from the ETC camp following the UTRUST announcement. Now that Coinbase accepts listing submissions, many other payment solutions could also step into the fore.
Let’s not forget about DASH, Litecoin, and (of course) Bitcoin. These currencies are already integrated with popular payment applications and have a much wider appeal to vendors who must rely upon them to represent and hold value. Ethereum Classic still has an incredible amount of ground to gain if it is to threaten the position of institutional cryptocurrencies like these.
Whatever the case, the UTRUST news is certainly not bad for Ethereum Classic. It’s proof that the Coinbase listing has legs, and that Ethereum Classic can attract a kind of industry attention it could not for most of the rest of its history. Expect ETC development, if anything, to intensify, and for more vendors around the world to start accepting ETC in the near future.
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