Ether (ETH) fell on Sunday to its lowest level against bitcoin (BTC) since March 2021, as the world’s second-largest token extended its losses against its largest rival.
One ether fell to 0.03 BTC on Sunday, down nearly 50% from a year ago, as bitcoin soared in the run-up to US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. The exchange rate of the two tokens, conventionally called the ratio, peaked above 0.08 in 2022.
ETH’s value proposition has been declining since then. Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $109,000 early Monday and has returned 160% to investors over the past year. Meanwhile, Ether has gained only 40% and is around 30% below its 2021 peak. Ether tends to rally as traders see a benefit for the Ethereum blockchain, the first to offer smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. It weakens when they prefer Bitcoin or other blockchains.
“Ethereum has notably underperformed this cycle, particularly as Solana gains traction through the memecoin frenzy and events like the official launch of Trump memecoins on Solana instead of Ethereum,” said Min Jung, analyst of investments from Presto Research, to CoinDesk in a Telegram message.
“That said, World Liberty Financial’s recent accumulation of $ETH highlights that Ethereum continues to maintain strong appeal among institutions. As the only cryptocurrency besides Bitcoin with an ETF, Ethereum is well positioned to be the next focal point after Bitcoin,” Jung added. World Liberty Financial is a crypto lending platform promoted by Trump and his children. Bitcoin isn’t just hitting new highs against its number one digital asset competitor. It has also done the same with rival investments in traditional assets. Bitcoin now costs 40 oz. of gold, or in equivalent terms, bitcoin versus gold market capitalization now reaches 11.4%.
