Summary Ethereum had a rough beginning of 2025 - failing to reach new all-time highs, while Bitcoin smashed through its own ATH multiple times. ETH/BTC is a great cryptocurrency spread for a crypto trader to spot relative performance, provide a direction for which crypto to choose, and track the appetite for altcoins. ETH/BTC rising helped altcoin bull runs in the past cycle - something that many crypto traders have been awaiting and is yet to materialize again. By Elior Manier Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) had a rough beginning of 2025 - failing to reach new all-time highs, while Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) smashed through its own ATH multiple times. Solana ( SOL-USD ), providing a cheaper alternative to ETH services, also held stronger than the Ether throughout the latter part of 2024 and beginning 2025. ETH performance is key to the overall crypto market performance; the past Altcoin cycles have always been led by ETH performance over BTC. ETH/BTC is a great cryptocurrency spread for a crypto trader to spot relative performance, provide a direction for which crypto to choose, and track the appetite for altcoins. Through this crypto market update, you will see how ETH/BTC rising helped altcoin bull runs in the past cycle, something that many crypto traders have been awaiting and is yet to materialize again. ETH/BTC and its Correlation to total Market Performance ETH/BTC and Total Crypto Market Cap, 2017 to End 2021 (Source: TradingView) This 2017-2021 chart of ETH/BTC contains essential information about understanding the crypto market. Through 1 and 2, we observe how the first bull run in ETH and ETH/BTC led to the 2017 total crypto market bull run - taking the market cap from $20-30B average to highs of $620B in November 2017. Number 3 on the chart shows how a drop in ETH/BTC leads to a significant cooldown of the crypto market, going back towards a total market cap between $100 and $250B from 2018 to the end of 2020. From end-2020 to the end of 2021, number 4 shows the same correlation of ETH/BTC and crypto markets rallying. This Covid-era bull run introduced crypto for an ever-bigger number of investors, and led to the flurry of altcoins and cryptocurrency projects such as Doge, Avax, Solana. The crypto market cap went from $300B to $2.86T, and this level only got reached again in November 2024. Finally, number 5 shows similarly to number 3 how the drop in market cap correlates with a drop in the ETH/BTC spread. ETH/BTC from 2020 to Today ETH/BTC and Bitcoin, 2020 to June 5, 2025 (Source: TradingView) We take a closer look at the 2021 Bull Run and how the December 2021 top in ETH/BTC led again a significant correction in the crypto market. 2023 was all about Bitcoin Dominance as its rally from $14,475 to its record highs of $112,030 left Ethereum and all other altcoins lagging. We are seeing a breakout from the descent that started at the same level as the 2020 ETH/BTC bullish breakout - we will see if the spread continues upward and if it generates another bull run for altcoins. ETH Daily Chart ETH Daily Chart, June 5, 2025 (Source: TradingView) ETH had a consequent rally after a significant drop between $4,000 highs in December 2024 to $1,363 lows in April 2025. Prices are consolidating between $2,300 and $2,600. The key is to see if Bitcoin prices that are also stagnating above the $100,000 Mark leads to rallies in other cryptos as the same phenomenon happened in past bull cycles. Levels to watch: Support Zones: S1: 2,385 to 2,525 S2: 2,035 to 2,167 S3: 1,700 to 1,825 Resistance Zones: R1: 2,600 to 2,750 R2: 3,225 to 3,363 R3: 3,660 to 3,800 ETH 4H Chart ETH 4H Chart, June 5, 2025 (Source: TradingView) Safe Trades! Original Post Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.
