While a lot of people are keeping a close eye on Bitcoin and Ethereum, other interesting things are taking place in the cryptocurrency world as well. Ethereum Classic has suddenly become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The currency successfully overtook New Economy Movement over the past 24 hours and is well underway to hit the $2bn market cap. The bigger question is where this sudden growth is coming from, which seems to be a bit unclear.

Ethereum Classic is Rising to Power

Alternative cryptocurrencies are usually known for their volatile price swings. The value per coin can go up or down significantly in a span of mere minutes, which skews the market cap numbers quite a bit. However, in the case of Ethereum Classic, there is a clear growth trend on the charts. Ever since April of 2017, Ethereum Classic has started to appreciate in value, which brings us to where we are today.

Anyone who held onto their ETC balance after the previous Ethereum hard fork will be quite pleased with the way things are going right now. One ETC is valued at $20.7, which is quite a lot of money for a currency that didn’t even exist that long ago. It is certainly possible the rise in the value of ETC and ETH is correlated, although both projects seemingly aim to pursue different end goals.

One thing working in Ethereum Classic’s favor is how trading platforms and exchanges are opening up ETC markets as of late. One of the latest companies to do so is HitBTC, which enabled ETC trading a day ago. More exchanges mean there is more liquidity. This does not always affect the price of a particular currency or token in a positive manner, though. Then again, it also shows there appears to be growing demand for Ethereum Classic, which could hint at positive things for the future.

The Ethereum Classic Twitter account also made an interesting comment a few days ago. The tweet mentions how more and more cryptocurrency ICOs will be coming to ETC. Moreover, there would be no bailouts for any ICO mishap taking place on the Ethereum Classic blockchain. This is a clear jab at the Ethereum hard fork to “bail out” investors of The DAO, which eventually resulted in the creation of Ethereum Classic as a separate ecosystem.

Then again, it has always been possible to run ICOs on the Ethereum Classic blockchain. The ETC ecosystem has the exact same technology as Ethereum, minus the hard fork, which caused quite a bit of controversy many months ago. Moreover, Barry Silbert has jumped on the Ethereum Classic train a while ago and continues to make ETC look appealing to mainstream investors. Rest assured the vast majority of ETC purchases are mere speculation, though, yet that does not have to be a bad thing.

Looking at the current markets, it is evident Korean traders have taken a liking to Ethereum Classic. We highlighted this in our “top cryptocurrencies in Korea” article a while ago. Both Bithumb and Coinone are clearly leading the trading volume charts right now, followed by Poloniex, CHBTC, and Korbit. It is quite surprising to only see one ETC/BTC trading pair in the top five right now, to say the least. It will be interesting to see where this market heads next, as anything can happen in the world of cryptocurrency right now.

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