By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh
(Reuters) – Cryptocurrency ether is struggling to keep pace with soaring big brother bitcoin.
The no. 2 cryptocurrency, which commands less than a fifth of the $2.7 trillion crypto market, has not done poorly. But ether is up just around 53% in the first three months of this year, compared with bitcoin’s 65%.
Bitcoin scaled new peaks last month. Trading around $3,612 on Monday, ether is at least 26% below its Nov. 2021 all-time high of $4,867.60.
Even a recent technical upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain, which is used to build applications, barely made a splash beyond the circle of crypto enthusiasts, in contrast to the excitement ahead of bitcoin’s “halving” next month, a technical change designed to slow the coin’s supply.
In a typical case of markets selling the fact, ether dropped 12% after the underlying blockchain’s Dencun upgrade on March 13 aimed at lowering transaction fees on its…
