- The ETH/BTC ratio rose 27%, reducing Bitcoin dominance by 6%.
- It already supports 50% of the total stablecoin market cap, over $140 billion as of Tuesday, and 55% of all tokenized asset value.
- Ether is building into a Store of Value asset like Bitcoin (BTC), especially with growing institutional interest.
Ether (ETH) led the market rally last week when commentators at Bitwise called it a “watershed moment” for cryptocurrencies. The ETH/BTC ratio rose 27%, reducing Bitcoin dominance by 6% and as a harbinger of a larger rotation into altcoins.
In a weekly market report, Bitwise experts Ayush Tripathi and André Dragosch explained Ether’s rally supports their long-held assumption that the price gap between Ethereum and Bitcoin is narrowing. ETH was supported by favorable macroeconomic fundamentals, headed by the recent approval of two landmark U.S.
crypto bills, the Genius Act and the Clarity Act, signed into law last week. These new regulations introduce much-needed clarity to crypto regulation and pave the way for greater institutional participation.
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Ethereum is especially poised to capitalize on this clarity. It already supports 50% of the total stablecoin market cap, over $140 billion as of Tuesday, and 55% of all tokenized asset value, Bitwise claimed. Bitwise believes these numbers call out Ethereum as the platform of choice for tokenization and decentralized finance.
Investor demand for ETH derivatives also went through the roof. Open interest on large exchanges grew by $6 billion, and CME ETH futures saw all-time highs. Ether exchange-traded products (ETPs) attracted $2.1 billion in inflows. Meanwhile, Ether treasury holdings jumped after the SPAC merger of Dynamix Corp and The Ether Machine sent 400,000 ETH to institutional treasuries.
Regardless of some volatility, Bitwise states that Ethereum’s underlying fundamentals are solid. A sharp decline in the SOL/ETH ratio indicates that institutions are increasingly viewing Ethereum as the preferred base layer to use for tokenization and connections to traditional finance.
Onchain analytics firm iCrypto noted that Ether is building into a Store of Value asset like Bitcoin (BTC), especially with growing institutional interest, its staking reward, and expected launch of staking-based ETFs. Institutional investors are turning ETH into a strategic treasury asset, according to iCrypto.
Several large companies have made major steps into Ether. Bit Digital recently sold all of its Bitcoin and purchased more than 100,000 ETH. Their acquisition came out to be $172 million, making it one of the largest institutional holders. BTCS Inc. increased its holding by 221% up to 29,122 ETH from late in 2024.
BitMine Immersion Technologies doubled its holding up to 163,000 ETH, and SharpLink currently holds more than 360,807 ETH- second only to the Ethereum Foundation.
