Comparing the increase in value of bitcoin and Ethereum over the past few years indicates that ETH has seen the biggest increases.
ETH is up 120% against BTC since 2020 and 54% in 2021.
— eric.eth (@econoar) April 15, 2021
For example, during 2020 the price of ETH rose from $130 to $750, a gain of 477%, while that of BTC rose from $7,200 to $27,500, an increase of 282%.
By contrast, in 2021 ETH went up to $2,400, an increase of 220%, while BTC went up to $63,000, an increase of 129%.
Therefore, last year and this year the price performance of Ethereum was better than that of bitcoin.
However, the same is not true for previous years, particularly 2018, when ETH lost 82% of its value, while BTC stopped at -72%. In 2019, BTC recorded +111%, while ETH essentially broke even.
In other words, after two years in which the price of Bitcoin outperformed that of Ethereum, the opposite has happened in the last two years.
Comparing, for instance, the current prices with those at the end of 2017, BTC scores +350%, while ETH +211%, i.e. over the long term bitcoin is performing better, while in the short term Ethereum is doing better.
Whales interested in Bitcoin vs Ethereum
Furthermore, according to Santiment, the current record price levels of BTC and ETH mean more opportunities for whales to make big moves, so much so that there have recently been very high peaks of BTC transactions over $100,000, while for ETH these have been somewhat less, but still growing.
#Bitcoin and #Ethereum being at record-high levels means more opportunities for whales to make big moves. $BTC has been seeing groups of very high spikes of $100k+ transactions, while $ETH $100k+ moves have been a bit more modest, but showing growth. https://t.co/hllTkrjQHI pic.twitter.com/6BiBlHaV7J
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 15, 2021
However, while the price performance of the two cryptocurrencies is comparable, their use is not, as BTC and ETH are used for different purposes. From this point of view, the only thing they have in common is the interest of speculators, which, however, is aimed exclusively at price dynamics, and not at the actual use of the tokens.
In light of this, it is also possible that, excluding speculators, bitcoin investors not only have different goals and interests than those who invest in Ethereum but perhaps they are also different people or companies who operate in different ways on the markets.