A recent shift in the comparison between Ethereum’s price and of Bitcoin has sparked conversation amongst investors. Despite Ethereum witnessing a year-to-date price increase of 36% in U.S. dollar terms in 2023, it remains at a significant 66% below its November 2021 peak. This demonstrates a 14-month long downtrend against Bitcoin, causing a call to question amongst Ether investors about the cause behind this price decline and what is required to reverse it.
Many within the Ethereum investment community laid their hopes on protocol upgrades, notably when Ethereum switched to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism reducing the need for new coin issuance. These changes aligned with the Ethereum community’s vision of “ultrasound money”, leading to expectations of a price rise, only for it to fall again within a week.
Despite the initial optimism, unforeseen events led to further uncertainty. A major concern was an Ethereum address linked to the ICO era showing its first activity directly to Coinbase. This unexpected activity fuelled regulatory concerns. A parallel event involved an address associated with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, increasing skepticism among some market stakeholders.
This austere narrative is interrupted, however, by moments of hope for Ethereum investors. The unexpected proposal for a spot Ether ETF by ARK Invest and 21Shares gave comfort, as it could lessen the risks linked with excessive institutional concentration in Bitcoin. This, in conjunction with the migration of Canto, a layer-1 Cosmos-native blockchain, to Ethereum’s layer-2, made Ethereum seem well-positioned to benefit from potential catalysts of Bitcoin’s price surge, such as the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF or inflation concerns in the U.S.
Despite regulatory uncertainty and recent price downtrends, Ethereum’s competitors in the decentralized applications sector face similar risks, thus stymieing their chances of challenging Ethereum’s dominance in terms of total value locked (TVL) and trading volumes. Regardless, the current landscape reveals a poignant necessity to explore additional potential catalysts to reverse the prevailing downtrend in Ether’s price relative to BTC.
Source: Cointelegraph
