A closely watched indicator of the relative strength of ether against bitcoin has risen to a three-month high, supported by growing network activity and record stablecoin inflows into Ethereum.
The ether-bitcoin ratio traded near 0.0313 on Wednesday, off a 2026 low of around 0.028 in February, but still well below the Jan. 18 high near 0.038. Ether gained 4% in the last seven days to trade near $2,325, outperforming bitcoin’s 3.9% move over the same period.
The ETH/BTC ratio tracks the relative price of ether against bitcoin on crypto exchanges and is one of the most followed risk appetite indicators across the digital asset market.
A growing proportion indicates that capital is flowing into ether and, by extension, into riskier parts of the crypto ecosystem. A decreasing proportion points to a preference for the relative security of bitcoin.
The pair peaked above 0.08 in late 2021 before entering a prolonged decline that accelerated into 2024 and 2025, dragged down by bitcoin ETF-driven demand, weakened fee income on Ethereum’s base layer following the Dencun upgrade, and a broader rotation away from altcoins.
When ether outperforms bitcoin on risk days rather than simply trailing it, it historically suggests that capital is starting to rotate rather than chasing the same trade. The signal strengthens if ether holds better than bitcoin during the next pullback.
Part of the argument for a sustained move rests on Ethereum’s on-chain fundamentals, which have been moving away from the token’s depressed valuation.
New network users rose 82% quarter-over-quarter in the first quarter to 284,000, according to Artemis data, while total transactions hit a record 200.4 million for the quarter, a 43% increase from the prior period.
The stablecoin supply on Ethereum also hit an all-time high of $180 billion, an increase of 150% over the past three years, according to Token Terminal. The network holds approximately 60% of the global stablecoin market, reinforcing its dominance as the primary settlement layer for tokenized dollars and suggesting a long-term demand anchor for ETH even as short-term price action lags.
However, ether is still more than 50% below its 52-week high of $4,831, and the ratio would need to reclaim the 0.035 zone on a weekly close to provide evidence that the recovery has legs beyond a short-lived bounce.
