CoinDesk Report:
Bitcoin has taken the largest price lead in recent history in the altcoin ecosystem, leaving Ethereum (which has consistently ranked second) in the dust.
The market value of OG cryptocurrencies now exceeds that of the second-ranked cryptocurrency by more than $1 trillion, with the latter’s price falling to its lowest point since early 2021.
Trillion-dollar lead for Bitcoin
According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin’s trading price on Thursday was $68,180, with a market value of $1.34 trillion. In comparison, Ethereum’s trading price was $2,530, with a market value of $305 billion.
This makes the ETH/BTC ratio only 0.037, the lowest level since April 2021 following a rapid rise in Ethereum over the past 12 months. In previous bull markets, Ethereum followed the general price behavior of other major altcoins: when Bitcoin rose, Ethereum rose.
This time it’s different. Since Ethereum’s highly anticipated Merge upgrade in September 2022, this top smart contract platform has lost over 50% of its value relative to BTC, despite the entire cryptocurrency market rising in USD since then.
In the past two years, the most bullish catalysts in cryptocurrency have been Bitcoin-centric. In March 2023, as several US banks collapsed, Bitcoin’s reputation as “digital gold” encouraged investors to flock to Bitcoin. Later, excitement over the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF led to months of Bitcoin’s rise, and it rose again after the huge success of the ETF in 2024.
According to The Wall Street Journal, during this period, Bitcoin’s dominance has reached a multi-year high, with the asset currently accounting for 59% of the entire cryptocurrency market.
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Poor performance of Ethereum
Unlike the Bitcoin ETF, which has absorbed over $200 billion in net inflows since its launch, the Ethereum spot ETF launched in July has continued to experience net outflows due to losses in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE).
According to CryptoQuant, the drop in the Coinbase premium index suggests that institutional investors may be reducing their exposure to ETH.
Bulls online for Ethereum
Stay resistant
However, in the face of poor performance, Ethereum educator Anthony Sassal argued on Wednesday that Ethereum’s L2 is dismantling any existing FUD around Ethereum because Ethereum is a slow and expensive network, and the current shorts in the network are just “followers”.
On Wednesday, Ryan Sean Adams, host of the Bankless podcast, added, “The only thing lacking for ETH right now is confidence, but that could change overnight.”