ICBC Labels Bitcoin “Digital Gold” and Ethereum “Digital Oil” in New Report

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest bank, has recognized Bitcoin (BTC) as “digital gold” and Ethereum (ETH) as “digital oil” in a recent report. Matthew Siegel, VanEck’s head of digital assets, shared the report, which praises these top cryptocurrencies by market cap and highlights their significant roles in the digital economy.

Bitcoin, The New Digital Gold

The ICBC report draws a direct comparison between Bitcoin and gold, emphasizing Bitcoin’s unique advantages. The bank notes that while Bitcoin maintains gold’s scarcity through mathematical consensus, it also overcomes several of gold’s limitations. The report states, “Bitcoin retains the scarcity similar to gold through mathematical consensus, while solving its problem of being difficult to divide, difficult to identify authenticity and inconvenient to carry.”

Moreover, the report suggests that Bitcoin’s asset attributes are strengthening, even as its monetary attributes weaken. This evolution positions Bitcoin as a robust digital asset, increasingly recognized for its value and utility.

Ethereum, The Digital Oil Driving Innovation

The ICBC report also lauds Ethereum, referring to it as “digital oil” due to its pivotal role in the blockchain ecosystem. It highlights Ethereum’s ongoing technological advancements aimed at enhancing security, scalability, and sustainability. “Ethereum has been continuously upgrading its technology in terms of security, scalability, and sustainability, providing technical power for the digital future,” the report notes.

Ethereum’s flexibility and comprehensive programming capabilities, particularly through its Solidity language and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), are recognized as significant strengths. These features support the development of complex smart contracts and applications, crucial for decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The report states, “Its flexibility has been widely recognized in the fields of decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFT), and is gradually extending to the physical infrastructure network (DePin).”

Despite acknowledging Ethereum’s challenges, the ICBC remains optimistic about its future. The report concludes, “Looking ahead, Ethereum developers will continue to work on finding the Pareto optimum between sustainability, security and efficiency.”

The ICBC report emphasizes strong market demand driving the continuous evolution of digital currencies. “Market demand drives the continuous iteration of digital currencies,” it asserts, highlighting the innovative momentum within the sector.

As of the report’s release, Bitcoin is trading at $67,358, reflecting a 5% drop in the past 24 hours. Ethereum is priced at $3,518, down over 1.34% on the day. These fluctuations underscore the volatile yet dynamic nature of the cryptocurrency market.