Not All Crypto Is Created Equal

Summary Bitcoin and Ethereum, with market caps of $1.3 trillion and $300 billion respectively, have diverged significantly in performance since mid-summer. As of July 15th, both cryptos were up 50% YTD, but Ethereum has since lost most gains while Bitcoin continued to rally. The Bitcoin to Ethereum ratio has widened to just under 27, a level not seen in over three years, highlighting Bitcoin's recent dominance. In the crypto space, Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) and Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) are considered two of the most credible with market caps of $1.3 trillion and $300 billion, respectively. While there is a tendency for many investors/speculators to lump the two together as highly correlated to each other, that has been far from the case over the last several months. Until mid-summer, Bitcoin and Ethereum followed similar paths, but since then, the paths of the two have diverged. The chart below shows the YTD performance of both cryptos and as recently as July 15th, both were up an identical 50% YTD. Since then, though, Ethereum has given up most of its YTD gains while Bitcoin has added modestly to its rally. Given the divergence between the two, the ratio of bitcoin to Ethereum has widened to just under 27, which is a level not seen in more than three years. As shown in the chart below, this is still half of where the ratio was in early 2021 (it was even higher than that in 2000), but in the short term, Bitcoin has become the "Mag 1" of the crypto space. Original Post Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.