Ether has a strong track record of outperforming Bitcoin. In 2021, ETH surged by a whopping 399.2% — five times more than BTC's still-impressive rise of 59.8%.
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Michael Saylor has been one of the most bullish voices on Bitcoin — proudly declaring that "there is no second best."
But according to one data-driven dashboard, MicroStrategy's leader didn't actually pick the fastest horse when he decided to invest aggressively in BTC back in August 2020.
The business intelligence firm currently holds 130,000 BTC — that's worth about $2.72 billion at the time of writing. Overall, the company is nursing a paper loss of about $1.26 billion.
Yet a dashboard from Blockchain Center suggests that, if it had purchased Ether instead, MicroStrategy would still be sitting on a profit of $1.59 billion… despite the crypto winter.
The sobering statistics don't end here. When staking is included, MicroStrategy would have earned a whopping 240,855 ETH as of now.
And if Saylor was to switch the company's Bitcoin into Ether, the firm would generate annual staking revenues of $136 million.
To put this figure into context, MicroStrategy has never had this much operating income.
Ether has a strong track record of outperforming Bitcoin. In 2021, ETH surged by a whopping 399.2% — five times more than BTC's still-impressive rise of 59.8%.
Since both cryptocurrencies reached an all-time high in November 2021, ETH has fallen by about 67.8% from a record of $4,891.70, while BTC is down 69.5% from $68,789.
When brought together, these figures tell us that Ether has accelerated far faster than the world's biggest cryptocurrency — and has been slightly better at holding onto these gains.
Explaining the rationale behind his visualization, the dashboard's creator @rohmeo_de said:
"Mainly because the data nerd in me was interested in the data. Now you can also use it for your petty Twitter dunks on Michael Saylor. Of course hindsight is 20/20, and his decision to convert his company cash (and more) into Bitcoin could have been (and still can be) the greatest decision ever. But saying 'there is no second best crypto asset' is a bit of a stretch if you ask me and the data that is currently available."
Will Saylor Take Notice?
Despite all of this, don't expect Saylor to start embracing Ether any time soon. For him, it's about much more than price.
Over the summer, MicroStrategy's executive chairman said he couldn't invest in the Ethereum blockchain because it's only about 55% complete — and with further upgrades on the horizon, he fears the network may not be complete or stable for years to come.
Speaking at the Blockchain Economy Istanbul Summit, Saylor said he would need to see a finished protocol function for five to ten years without a hack taking place, adding:
"Every time you do a big upgrade you introduce new attack surfaces."
Saylor also seems to be pretty satisfied with how Bitcoin has been holding up in the current crypto winter — and on Twitter, he shared a chart that shows BTC is now far less volatile than both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
Bitcoiners on Crypto Twitter are rather unconcerned by the findings too — and argue that Ethereum's switch to Proof-of-Stake means transactions are now easier to censor.
And with many of those responding to the data asking a bot to remind them of the tweet in two to three years, they seem pretty confident that Bitcoin will eventually be top dog once again.
