Ethereum Continues To Underperform Against Bitcoin

Today, Ethereum's native ETH token slid further against BTC, recording a low of 0.0365 and erasing all its gains against Bitcoin since April 2021.

Ethereum (ETH) continues to struggle against Bitcoin (BTC) as the second-largest digital asset by market cap hit new lows against the top cryptocurrency.

Ethereum Loses Steam Against Bitcoin

Data from Coinglass shows that ETH slid further against BTC on Monday, hitting a low of 0.0365 and erasing all its gains against Bitcoin since April 2021. This multi-year low is bound to dampen the expectations of ETH permabulls.

At one point, ETH reached a local high of 0.0865 BTC. However, since then, the smart contract token has been on a continuous downward trajectory, declining by almost 58% against the premier digital asset.

Notably, the last monthly green candle that ETH posted against BTC was in May 2024. It is highly likely that by the end of October, ETH will have posted five consecutive monthly red candles against Bitcoin.

On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, ETH is down by over 30% against BTC. Interestingly, within the last three months, the ETH/BTC trading pair has declined by over 22%, indicating that major losses against BTC are more recent.

While various factors could be blamed for ETH’s lackluster price performance, a major reason is the rapidly increasing competition from rival smart contract blockchains such as Solana (SOL).

The chart below shows that SOL has been on an upward trajectory against ETH after a brief consolidation in June 2024. On a YTD basis, SOL has recorded almost 60% gains against ETH. At the time of writing, the SOL/ETH ratio is trading close to a new all-time high (ATH) at 0.069.

What Is Holding ETH Back?

Although Ethereum adoption continues to grow – boosted by the recent Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the effects are not entirely reflected in the price action of the native ETH token.

A recent report found that more than 34 million ETH – close to 30% of its supply – is currently staked. Despite the lower circulating supply as a result of staking, ETH’s price continues to perform poorly against other digital assets.

In addition, the extraordinary growth witnessed by Ethereum layer-2 (L2) solutions such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base, has taken the attention away from the smart contract platform. In August, Justin Bons, founder of Cyber Capital said “Ethereum is dying while L2’s dance on its grave.”

Despite the growing pessimism toward its price action, ETH whales remain unfazed as they continue to scoop more tokens to benefit from potential future price appreciation. Recent analysis found that Ethereum whales now control about 43% of ETH’s entire supply.

Similarly, earlier this month, asset manager BlackRock was found to be selling its BTC holdings for ETH, suggesting the firm’s bullish outlook on the token. At press time, ETH trades at $2,532, up 0.2% in the past 24 hours.