Could Ether Ever Be as Big as Bitcoin?

Imagine a Harvard economics professor was cryogenically frozen in 1950. He’s just been defrosted and it’s your job to bring him up to speed.

In truth, it wouldn’t take long. The fundamentals of global economics remain the same, even though the scale, complexity and distribution have changed. He’d quickly recognize fixtures like tariffs, monopolist megacorporations, and the cyclical booms and busts that still shape the economic landscape.

But there’s one thing for which our recently thawed economist would have no frame of reference: cryptocurrency. 

Rather than an elaboration of a pre-existing paradigm, crypto is an entirely new thing, a truly novel approach to the circulation of value. To our economist, it would look as if someone invented a global, stateless currency: self-policing, unforgeable and operating entirely in the realm of mathematics. There has never been anything like it. This is part of what makes it so dynamic and compelling, and also why it can be so volatile. 

Bitcoin [BTC] was the original cryptocurrency, launched in January 2009 and remains the most prominent. 

It made up over 80% of the total cryptocurrency market at the start of the boom in March 2017; its share fell to 38% by November 2022, before rebounding to 54% in June 2024. By August 21, 2025, BTC’s dominance had risen further, accounting for over 58% of the market.

BTC vs ETH

However, Bitcoin has begun losing share to what many consider to be its principal challenger.

Launched in July 2015, Ethereum is the largest and best-established open-ended decentralized software platform.

While blockchain was first applied to digital currency, Ethereum extends the technology to decentralized finance (DeFi), a blockchain-based ecosystem that offers financial services — like lending, borrowing, trading and yield farming — without traditional intermediaries such as banks. 

It relies on smart contracts, mostly using the Ethereum blockchain’s native token, ether [ETH], to automate transactions and enforce rules. Users can access financial services globally, often with lower costs and greater transparency than conventional finance. 

With its range of applications, ETH stands in contrast to BTC, which was designed primarily to store and transfer value.

Investors are increasingly coming to realize ETH’s potential. ETH currently accounts for a 13.4% share of the crypto market, but that figure looks set to rise as the currency gains increasing mainstream acceptance. 

A tipping point came early in 2024. US regulators approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January, a long-awaited sea change that led to inflows worth billions of dollars. In May spot Ethereum ETFs were also approved, paving the way for ETH’s entry into mainstream finance.

ETH: Latest Developments

There have been two big pieces of ETH-related news in recent weeks, both of them IPOs. 

Circle’s [CIRCL] listing in June marked the first major stablecoin issuer to go public and the biggest crypto listing since Coinbase [COIN] in 2021. 

It priced its IPO at $31 and listed at $69.

Barclays, Bernstein, Canaccord Genuity and Needham issued ‘buy’ ratings with price targets above $200, citing surging stablecoin adoption. Bernstein called Circle’s digital dollar network “market-leading” with regulatory strength, liquidity advantages and marquee partnerships that would be “hard to replicate”, Reuters reported.  

Circle is closely tied to Ethereum through its stablecoin, USD Coin [USDC], which primarily exists as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. Every USDC transaction on Ethereum relies on ETH to pay network fees, making ETH essential to its operation.

In August 2025, Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish [BLSH] jumped 84% on its NYSE debut after a $1.1bn IPO that was 20x oversubscribed. The stock spiked to $117.93 — more than triple its offer price — before easing back, then added another 4.1% after hours. 

The debut coincided with ether and bitcoin nearing record highs, with ETH leading gains on strong ETF inflows and corporate treasury buying, according to Seeking Alpha. 

CIRCL stock is up 99.72% against its debut, while BLSH stock is down 34.28%. Of course, such figures don’t mean much so soon after an IPO.

Following a 100% ETH rally between July 1 and August 13, the cryptocurrency saw a six-day, 15.1% spiral that wiped out $817m in leveraged longs. However, it failed to spark broader bearish sentiment. Derivatives positioning suggests traders still see a $4,700 price as attainable, Cointelegraph reported.

Is ETH or BTC a Better Bet?

Let’s suppose our professor made some canny investments in the 1940s, as a result of which he’s now a billionaire. Would he do better to invest in ETH or in BTC?

Bitcoin and Ethereum are fundamentally different things. Nonetheless, in many investors’ minds, their respective tokens are comparable assets: both are large, liquid and widely recognized cryptocurrencies. The key difference lies in where they are in terms of their uptake curve. 

BTC’s recent institutional endorsements, including the US government’s establishment of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, bolster its position as a hedge against inflation and macroeconomic instability. Its recent (and sporadically ongoing) price surge reflects growing investor confidence. Its preeminence is such that it is practically synonymous with crypto.

By contrast, ETH’s price volatility and ongoing scalability challenges, despite recent upgrades, do not scream stability. One thing that may appeal is its exposure to the burgeoning DeFi sector. If the space grows to even a fraction of what its advocates anticipate, then ETH could see some pretty eyewatering growth.

Conclusion

ETH could never entirely supplant Bitcoin, but it doesn’t need to. Its value lies in powering DeFi and a growing ecosystem of decentralized applications, giving it a fundamentally different role in crypto. For investors, that means ETH and BTC could be complementary bets: one a digital gold, the other a potential gateway to the future of finance.