BTC vs. ETH: Which cryptocurrency will bring a knife to this gunfight?

Bitcoin [BTC] witnessed a price decline that pushed its price below $30,000. However, the downtrend was short-lived as BTC’s price again crossed the $30,000 mark. At press time, it was trading at $30,015.14 with a market capitalization of over $580 billion.

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While BTC recovered, the same was not true with the second largest crypto, Ethereum [ETH]. Its price was down by over 2% in the last 24 hours. However, the scenario might soon change, as hinted by a recent CryptoQuant analysis.

Battle of the royals

CryptoQuant posted an analysis on 11 April highlighting quite a few factors that suggested the possibility of ETH outperforming BTC in the coming days. 

For instance, the analysis mentioned that the relative spot demand for ETH increased recently due to a decrease in BTC spot trading volume. This was a development in the king of altcoins’ favor.

Source: CryptoQuant

Furthermore, the futures markets pointed towards a possible turn toward ETH, with open interest and trading volume possibly bottoming out. 

The derivatives market’s interest in ETH could be driven by the upcoming Shanghai update, which will happen on 12 April, allowing stakers to collect their locked rewards.

BTC’s decline can be beneficial for ETH

Wenry, an author and analyst at CryptoQuant, also posted another analysis, which raised some concerns about BTC’s future. According to the analysis, the ratio of spot trading volume to derivatives has been declining sharply since 26 March. 

The ratio played a vital role in BTC’s pump during Q1. Therefore, a decline in it increases the possibility of ETH outperforming BTC in the near term.

Source: CrytpoQuant

This is what the metrics suggest

Looking at metrics of both cryptocurrencies simultaneously revealed that BTC still had an edge over ETH with several metrics in support of the bulls. For instance, BTC’s taker buy/sell ratio revealed that buying sentiment was dominant in the derivatives market. 

However, as per CryptoQuant’s data, the opposite was the case with ETH at press time, which might be troublesome. While ETH’s number of active addresses declined compared to the previous day, BTC’s active addresses increased. 

Source: Santiment

Santiment’s data revealed that BTC’s weighted sentiment was considerably more positive than ETH’s, suggesting investors’ confidence in the king coin. Investors’ trust in BTC was further proven by Santiment’s tweet.

The tweet revealed that a whale address was the recipient of a 23,500 BTC transaction, which was the 4th largest recorded transfer of the year. 

🐳 A whale address was the recipient of a 23,500 $BTC transaction, worth ~$710M. This was the 4th largest recorded transfer of the year. With $30k now breached, large moves like this should be increasingly common as the crowd polarizes. https://t.co/QjkbAqGXYj pic.twitter.com/JaymbhvORL

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) April 12, 2023

Read Bitcoin’s [BTC] Price Prediction 2023-24

An episode worth watching

Considering the metrics, it is unlikely for ETH to beat BTC’s performance. But since ETH’s waits for its major update, and a few key BTC metrics are dwindling, it would be interesting to watch how things play out.