I know many Steemians get nervous if I mention Steem was an underperforming cryptocurrency in the last couple of months, or one year. But this has also a good side, it is cheap now – but not only in USD terms. Better look at the ETH/STEEM price, or consider exchanging Bitcoin.

Steem at discounted price

Las December Steem fell to 0.212920 by Coinmarketcap.com, that’s the 12 months low now. Today’s 0.428173 USD price is a little more than the double of that. Ether or Ethereum, how also many people call it, bottomed by 82.83 USD, also doubled since then. Why do I tell you Steem is cheap in Ether terms?

(Click the chart for higher resolution)

At the moment, STEEM/ETH price is 0.002568834 USD on Coingecko. Reversing it, that means that you get 389.3 STEEM for an Ether (not counting the fees or trading margins between buy/sell prices). In the last 365 days, the average amount of Steem you got for an Ether was only 308,60 Steem. Now you get appropriately 25 percent more. See the chart.

Bitcoin breakout

In the last 365 days, the maximum amount of Steem you got for an Ether was 553, the minimum, 127. Maybe that sounds not like winning the lottery, but if you have Ether and if you plan to invest in Steem, that is not a bad moment now. The price is relatively close to the 12-month lows. And the cryptocurrency market shows signs of revival since Bitcoin broke out over 5000 USD again.

The price of Steem appears to be even more “discounted” compared with Bitcoin. The Old Good Bitcoin, the crypto-gold fell less in the last 12-16 months than most altcoins or Steem, also less than Ether. Bitcoin has also approximately 3.8 percent of y/y inflation, but you don’t have any income unless you are a miner.

(Click the chart for higher resolution)

For one Bitcoin you get 12 220 Steem now, there were only two periods with higher amounts. One, from end of November 2018 to end of February 2018. The other, in the Spring of 2017 (as Steem fell to all time lows by 7 cents). So, if you ever reconsidered to exchange some Bitcoins to Steem, this may be a good moment.

Safe harbor and inflation hedge

I perceive Bitcoin some sort of safe harbor in the crypto-world, due the mechanism which makes almost impossible to hack the system (proof-of-work). Possibly, I will never sell all my bitcoins, but perhaps another portion if Steem gets even cheaper in Bitcoin terms.

Steem and Ether are both eyeing smart contracts, and are facing many competitors. (EOS, Tron, Neo, Lisk etc.). But both have strong sides, both have a lot of working dApps and are some years ahead of others. I, personally, prefer to have, “hodl” some Ether too, in smaller quantity.

Although Steem has a great advantage for us. With active blogging, curating (or vote selling), we have incomes which are compensating, I hope, the inflation in the system. (About inflation – supply growth – in Steem system and other altcoins I wrote recently here.)