Ether Drops to 4-Year Low Against Bitcoin as Trump Sees Biggest Cryptocurrency Boosting
Ether (ETH) Sunday fell to its lowest level against bitcoin (BTC) since March 2021 as the second largest token in the world has extended losses against its larger rival.
One ether fell to 0.03 BTC on Sunday, nearly 50% lower than a year ago, while bitcoin rose in the run-up to the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump. The exchange rate for the two tokens, commonly called the ratio, rose above 0.08 in 2022.
ETH’s value proposition has been declining ever since. Bitcoin touched a record high at $109,000 earlier Monday and has returned 160% to investors over the past year. Ether, meanwhile, has only gained 40% and is looking about 30% below its 2021 peak. Ether tends to rally when traders see a benefit for the Ethereum blockchain, the first to offer smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. This weakens when they prefer Bitcoin or other blockchain.
“Ethereum has significantly underperformed this cycle, especially as Solana gains traction through the memecoin frenzy and events like Trump’s official memecoin launch on Solana instead of Ethereum,” said Min Jung, an investment analyst at Presto Research, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.
“That said, World Liberty Financial’s recent accumulation of $ETH shows that Ethereum continues to maintain strong appeal among institutions. As the only cryptocurrency besides Bitcoin with an ETF, Ethereum is well positioned to become the next focal point after Bitcoin,” added Jung. World Liberty Financial is a crypto lending platform promoted by Trump and his children. Bitcoin is not making new highs only against No. 1 competitor in digital assets. It did the same against rival investments in traditional assets. Bitcoin today is worth 40 oz. of gold, or in equivalent terms, the bitcoin versus gold market cap is now as high as 11.4%.
