Ethereum (ETH) Price Approaches Critical Zone Against Bitcoin (BTC), Historically Marked the Beginning of a Massive Rebound

Ethereum's Ether ETHUSD token is approaching a critical price zone against Bitcoin BTCUSD, which historically marked the beginning of a massive rebound.

Ether (ETH) is approaching a critical price zone against Bitcoin (BTC), which in the past marked the beginning of a massive rebound.

The ETH/BTC pair, now trading around 0.019 BTC, is nearing 0.016 BTC - the level it hit in September 2019 before rallying nearly 450% over the following year.

The current setup of ETH/BTC bears resemblance to 2019, with both periods characterized by oversold relative strength index (RSI), prolonged periods below key moving averages, and multi-year declines.

In 2019, ETH/BTC experienced a decline of over 90% over the preceding two years, largely due to the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) collapse.

As of 2025, the pair has decreased more than 80% from its 2021 peak, encumbered by skepticism towards Ethereum's transition to proof-of-stake (PoS), increasing competition, and Bitcoin's rising presence as an institutional asset.

In response to these concerns, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has proposed a new architecture and protocol-wide standards to make Ethereum simpler, faster, and as maintainable as Bitcoin within five years.

One analyst described Buterin's proposal as "the most bullish thing for ETH."

These hopes for bullish activity arise as ETH/BTC attempts to break free from its multi-year "bearish parabola." This resistance curve has been instrumental in limiting the pair's attempts at upside movement since December 2021, but it showed signs of exhaustion by May 3.

"We might be seeing the end of this bearish parabola," wrote chartist Jimie.

He added that if the curved resistance holds, then a drop toward 0.016 BTC could be seen - the same level where ETH/BTC bottomed in September 2019 before rallying around 450%.

However, skeptics like Adam Back, pioneer of Bitcoin's proof-of-work, believe Buterin is overlooking deeper design flaws while suggesting to simplify Ethereum in the coming years.

Back criticizes Ethereum's account-based system, deeming it unnecessarily complex compared to Bitcoin's simpler UTXO (unspent transaction output) model. He asserts that this growing complexity increases technical risks and makes Ethereum harder to scale and secure.

Moreover, Back claims that Ethereum's shift to PoS has concentrated power among insiders by transferring miner rewards to large token holders.

"At this point, just flush ETH before it hits zero and buy Bitcoin," he wrote, suggesting that no upgrade can rectify what he views as the flawed foundation of Ethereum.