As Bitcoin reached an all-time high, the ETH/BTC trading pair has hit its lowest point this year, sparking yet more discussions over market dominance. Bitcoin is now rising steadily to an unprecedented $97,862.64, adding to its gains near $97,379.69 at the time of writing. In stark contrast to this, however, Ethereum hasn’t reaped the benefits either and has suffered a steep fall in its performance versus Bitcoin.
Its skyrocketing price has also helped it in making a place in the top countries market dominance ranking. Overall, Bitcoin now holds 60.5 percent of the total cryptocurrency market, based on CoinMarketCap data, rising about 3 percent in the past month alone. The Google and Facebook ads, with institutional investments contributing so largely to the rally, have helped cement Bitcoin’s position as the leading cryptocurrency.
“Today, more institutional investors are investing in Bitcoin compared to before. The second factor was the political landscape, particularly Donald Trump, who became the President-elect of the United States. Donald Trump has had an impact, and it’s said that he revised his stance on cryptocurrencies, with Elon Musk acting as a crypto-positive representative,” stated Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, in an interview with IndiaToday.
Ethereum’s market share is falling too. Dominance fell to 11.8 percent from 13.8 last month. As the ETH/BTC pair marks its lowest value in 2024, this decline also demonstrates how Ethereum underperformed against Bitcoin this year.
Bitcoin’s Dominance Spreads to Broader Altcoin Market
Bitcoin’s dominance has even tipped over to the broader altcoin market. Right now, the Altcoin Season Index is 28, which means you’re more inclined towards Bitcoin over altcoins. It seems market liquidity is becoming decentralized away from altcoins like Ethereum as Bitcoin’s rally continues.
From a pure technical point of view, you can see in the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator of Ethereum that there is a struggle with momentum at key resistances. These challenges lead us to ask: Can Ethereum turn its course around against Bitcoin?
From the technical and fundamental standpoints, how Ethereum recovers in the ETH/BTC pair will matter. At 0.057 BTC, they show important technical support that could be the basis for subsequent upward movement. Critical resistance levels occur at 0.065 BTC and 0.070 BTC that Ethereum needs to establish momentum to recover.
On the bottom layer, we still have scaling solutions like Layer2 scaling and DeFi apps growing that keep Ethereum thriving. A rebound is possible if Ethereum can use these factors as a springboard.
While there’s a lot of volatility in the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin leading the way, nothing is static. To close the gap against Bitcoin for Ethereum, breaking resistance and getting network upgrades to stick will be important. As the year unfolds, the question is, whether it can regain its footing or keep falling back; it depends.
