*, Ethereum is more popular than Bitcoin because people view it as a technology wager.

• Ethereum price has jumped nearly 680% this past year, while Bitcoin has added about 170% to its USD value over the same period.

Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz claims that Ethereum outperforms the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin due to Ether’s fundamental outlook, which has investors looking at it as a technology bet.

Novogratz outlined this view during an interview on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’, where he talked about crypto as well as the current outlook in the equity markets.

Ethereum offers more than just an inflation hedge

The Galaxy Digital exec’s comments come at a time the market is experiencing a downturn exacerbated by uncertainty across the globe regarding the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

A recent sell-off has pushed Bitcoin’s (BTC) price below $50,000, with the benchmark cryptocurrency declining by more than 13% in the past week. Meanwhile, Ethereum has struggled to break above $4,400, with its price down nearly 6% during the past week.

But while data on CoinGecko shows BTC price is up 170% over the past year, it’s a massive 680% for Ethereum price.

According to Novogratz part of the reason ETH outperforms BTC is that the former attracts more investors in a shift towards investment perspectives.

He believes that Bitcoin’s use cases are limited. Most people currently use it to hedge their money. Ethereum, on the other hand, has many great uses, including its smart contract functionality and applications in decentralised financing (DeFi) as well as non-fungible tokens.

This “flexibility,” is what is enabling Ethereum to push ahead and surpass the top cryptocurrency.

“People see Ethereum as a technology bet and Bitcoin as a debasement of fiat currency bet,” he explained on the show.

Novogratz also spoke about crypto markets and equities. He said that crypto was not trading as bullishly as the equity markets. He however remains upbeat about the broader crypto space, predicting that even though Bitcoin price has slipped below $50k, it’s unlikely to dip under $40k. This, he added, will be the case even with a spike in risk-on effect from a very hawkish Fed.

He also noted institutional adoption and the steady appreciation for crypto across countries as positive vibes for the crypto asset.

He stated that the world is “waking up” to cryptocurrency as an asset class and that Bitcoin is now a part of every crypto portfolio.

A similar view of Bitcoin also came out during billionaire investor Barry Sternlicht’s comment that the crypto is a “smart hedge. “