Finance

Ether’s Ascent Stalls: Why Bitcoin Still Dominates Despite ETH’s New Highs

ETH/BTC ratio below 0.05 since July despite ETH hitting new highs and institutional adoption.

September 14, 2025, 5:10 PM

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A detailed dashboard provides a real-time analysis of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency market, offering insights into trends and performance. By MDL.

Executive Summary

The Ether-Bitcoin (ETH/BTC) ratio has consistently remained below the 0.05 threshold since July 2024, indicating Ether’s underperformance against Bitcoin.

Ether’s price experienced a significant rally, reaching an all-time high of $4,957 in August, fueled by a 155% surge since July and increased institutional adoption.

Market analysis indicates Ether has historically outperformed Bitcoin only 15% of the time, with Bitcoin consistently outperforming Ether since 2020.

The Story So Far

The persistent underperformance of the ETH/BTC ratio, despite Ether’s recent price rally and significant institutional adoption, is largely due to its historical tendency to underperform Bitcoin since 2020, a trend only briefly reversed during its early years and the 2017 ICO boom, further exacerbated by broader macroeconomic uncertainties earlier in the year.

Why This Matters

The persistent underperformance of Ether against Bitcoin, as evidenced by the ETH/BTC ratio remaining below 0.05 despite Ether’s significant price rallies and institutional adoption, indicates a fundamental shift in cryptocurrency market dynamics. This trend suggests that Bitcoin continues to solidify its position as the dominant digital asset and primary institutional entry point, potentially reshaping investor strategies and challenging long-held expectations about Ether’s relative growth and the “flippening” narrative.

Who Thinks What?

The ETH/BTC ratio has consistently remained below 0.05 since July 2024, indicating Ether’s persistent underperformance against Bitcoin, despite Ether’s own significant price rally.

Ether’s price has surged by about 155% since July, reaching an all-time high of $4,957 in August, fueled by financial institutions adopting the token and traditional equity investors purchasing through ETFs.

Market analyst James Check notes that Ether has historically outperformed Bitcoin only 15% of the time since its launch, with Bitcoin consistently outperforming Ether since 2020.

The Ether-Bitcoin (ETH/BTC) ratio has consistently remained below the 0.05 threshold since July 2024, despite significant institutional adoption of Ether and a historic price rally that saw ETH reach new all-time highs in July and August. This persistent underperformance against Bitcoin highlights a notable trend in the cryptocurrency market, even as Ether itself has experienced substantial growth.

ETH/BTC Ratio Performance

The ETH/BTC ratio, which gauges Ether’s value relative to Bitcoin, currently stands at 0.039, a decrease from 0.04 in August. This metric has not surpassed 0.05 since July 2024. Its all-time high was 0.14 in June 2017, according to data from CoinGecko.

Earlier in the year, the ratio plummeted to a five-year low of 0.02 in March. This decline occurred amidst widespread macroeconomic uncertainty and escalating trade tensions between the United States and its global trading partners.

Ether’s Price Rally and Institutional Interest

Despite the ETH/BTC ratio’s struggles, the broader cryptocurrency market experienced a recovery, leading to new highs in subsequent months. Ether’s price, in particular, saw a series of peaks in August, culminating in an all-time high of $4,957 on August 24. It has since retraced by approximately 6.7% from that peak.

Ether’s price has surged by about 155% since July. This rally has been fueled by several factors, including financial institutions adopting the token for treasury purposes. Additionally, traditional equity investors have been purchasing ETH through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and the Ethereum Foundation has been actively promoting the network to Wall Street.

Historical Outperformance Trends

Market analyst James Check notes that Ether has outperformed Bitcoin only 15% of the time since its launch in 2015. The majority of this outperformance occurred between 2015 and 2017, following the debut of the world’s first smart contract blockchain platform and during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom of 2017.

However, Check’s price history analysis from April indicates a shift in trend since 2020, with Bitcoin consistently outperforming Ether. Despite this, market analysts continue to forecast when Ethereum will finally breach the $5,000 milestone, a level it narrowly missed by approximately $43 in August before its recent pullback.