Van Straten: Ether’s Weakest Performance Against Bitcoin Reflects a Pattern of Shrinking Returns.

Ether’s Struggles Relative to Bitcoin Reflect Bitcoin’s Strength, Not Ether’s Weakness, Says Expert

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has experienced its weakest performance relative to bitcoin (BTC) during the current bull cycle, marking the worst showing against its larger rival since Ethereum’s inception in 2015.

When comparing the ether-to-bitcoin ratio across previous cycles, the trend of underperformance is evident. The cycle in question began in November 2022 when bitcoin hit a low of approximately $15,500 amid the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Over time, the return of ether against bitcoin has steadily decreased.

On Wednesday, the ether-to-bitcoin ratio dropped below 0.0300, reaching a four-year low of 0.02993. This is a 15% decrease this month and represents a 44% decline from the previous year. The last time the ratio was at such a low was on January 19, the day before President Trump’s inauguration.

Currently, bitcoin is trading at around $105,000, having bounced back from a dip to $98,000 following the release of DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) program. Ether, trading at $3,202, would need to climb to about $3,360 to recover from the price impact of DeepSeek.

Andre Dragosch, head of research at Bitwise’s European desk, explained that the underperformance of ether against bitcoin is more indicative of bitcoin’s strength than ether’s inherent weakness. “Ether often suffers from what we call ‘middle child syndrome,’ where it’s not as scalable as competitors like Solana (SOL), and it doesn’t directly compete with bitcoin as the leading store of value,” Dragosch said.