With Bitcoin hitting new all-time highs and closing in on the psychologically important $100,000 mark, a major topic of conversation is Ether’s underperformance compared with the rest of the market. According to CoinMarketCap, ETH dominance is down to 12.6% at the time of writing, its lowest level since April 2021.
The Flippening seems further away than ever, with Ether falling more than 50% against Bitcoin since 2021, even dropping below the 2016 cycle high.
Bitcoin has dominated mindshare over the past year, with huge flows of institutional money pouring into the Bitcoin ETFs, says Messari co-founder and chief technology officer Dan McArdle.
“Everyone can understand ‘digital gold’ — the mindshare in TradFi is just almost entirely Bitcoin,” McArdle tells Magazine.
Bitcoin and Ether dominance is falling thanks to XRP’s stunning 428% rise over the past month. (CoinMarketCap)
The trend appeared to be headed for a reversal once it became clear the pro-crypto Donald Trump was the winner of the 2024 US presidential election. However, those gains were quickly given back just a few days later. Inflows for the spot Ether ETFs have also been disappointing, although they finally turned positive recently amid signs Ethereum is coiling up for a breakout.
While plenty of Bitcoin proponents are ready to declare the death of Ethereum, the reality is that sentiment can quickly turn in the crypto market. One of the last times it looked like Ether may be dying was in September 2019, and the crypto asset surged from a low of 0.01615 BTC to a high of 0.08837 BTC over the next couple of years.
Ethereum is facing competition as a smart contract platform from the likes of Solana, Sui and others this cycle, but the improved regulatory outlook and a potential increase in institutional adoption have market observers suggesting the ETH/BTC trading pair may be near to, or have already hit, its bottom.
The…..
