The market capitalization of Ether (ETH) has increased at a much faster rate than Bitcoin’s (BTC) over the past year, highlighting the relative outperformance of ETH versus BTC over that period.
In its latest Blockchain Letter, cryptocurrency investment manager Pantera Capital charted Ether’s growth trajectory. “The ratio of ethereum’s market cap to Bitcoin’s market cap has doubled in the last year,” the investment manager said, adding:
“We think this is the beginning of the market re-rating Ethereum for EIP 1559 and Proof of Stake. These two changes will lead to ethereum being a deflationary asset where each block negative ethereum are issued. This means ETH will be a more deflationary asset than bitcoin.”
The combination of growing DeFi use cases and rapid adoption suggests Ether's market share will continue to grow relative to Bitcoin’s, Pantera argued.
“We think this is just the beginning,” Pantera CEO Dan Morehead tweeted on Thursday in reference to Ether’s potential versus Bitcoin.
Ether’s value has shot up 1,750% over the past 12 months, even while factoring the latest market turmoil tied to Elon Musk’s decision to stop accepting Bitcoin payments for Tesla automobiles.
The market capitalization of Ether peaked just north of $500 billion earlier this week, placing it among the global enterprise elite. The cryptocurrency also reached a three-year high against Bitcoin, adding to the bullish fervor. As Pantera Capital noted, the developer network is now more valuable than every major bank except JPMorgan Chase.
Bitcoin has also had a tremendous 12-month stretch, climbing from around $9,000 in May 2020 to a high above $64,000 in April.
Bitcoin was last seen hovering above $48,400, having declined 10.9% on the day. Ether, meanwhile, was nursing a loss of 10% to trade at $3,635.