Why Does Steem Lag in a Bull Market for Cryptocurrencies?

The Desires of Crypto Investors

When people look for cryptocurrency utility, what are the main attributes that they seek? Based on the origins and hype of cryptocurrencies, the most desired attributes are decentralization, anonymity, fast speeds, and low costs.

So why does Steem underperform in the larger cryptocurrency market? It has all of the desired attributes:

It is decentralized.*
Accounts can be created with anonymity.
Transaction times are near-instant (three-second block times).
Transactions are free.

• The “ninja-mine” still appears to be a dark cloud hanging over the blockchain.

With the recent issues for blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum not being able to handle high volume and with miners requiring increasing fees to speed up transactions, why does Steem still lag in the wider crypto market? Why is investment so much lower in STEEM than in the tokens that can’t even come close to its attributes and its actual daily performance? With all of the continuous complaints about Bitcoin and other popular blockchains and tokens not being able to deliver on fast transaction times and low fees, why is Steem always overlooked?

As Bitcoin and Ethereum reach capacity for daily transactions and have thousands pending each day, Steem rolls on at much less than 1% capacity. With a current average of over 907,000 transactions per day over the last seven days, and a record of 1,044,574 in one day, it tops almost all other tokens in terms of daily use. The lone exception being Ethereum at the moment, which has seen a flurry of activity from the CryptoKitties craze.

Despite being able to do what all of the other blockchains can only hope for at some point in the future, Steem’s market cap is currently ranked 32nd on the list. Both its price and market cap are far behind tokens like Ethereum, Litecoin, and even purported scams like BitConnect. Steem has the desired attributes and it has proven that it can potentially handle the transaction load of all of the current blockchains.