What is the Flippening?
Since its creation back in 2009, Bitcoin (BTC) has led crypto into mainstream adoption. It has seen huge ups and downs — riding the wave, then written off as a fad, again and again. After all these years, it's still the number one cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
In 2015, Ethereum (ETH) launched and brought smart contracts to blockchain technology. That opened up hundreds of new use cases — most visibly the explosion of decentralized finance (DeFi), an alternative to the trillion-dollar traditional banking industry.
Within just a couple of years, Ethereum grew into the second-biggest coin by market capitalization — and it has held that spot ever since.
The flippening is the day Ethereum (ETH) overtakes Bitcoin (BTC) to become the #1 coin by market cap. The charts above show how close it has come.
Here's the twist: by usage, Ethereum flipped Bitcoin years ago. It regularly settles more daily transactions and active addresses than Bitcoin — both well above the 100% parity line. The flippening that hasn't happened is purely the one that counts the most: market capitalization.
There are other flippenings brewing too — Solana chasing Ethereum and USDC vs USDT.