Journalist
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Key Takeaways
What are the advantages Ethereum has over Bitcoin?
Functionality- smart contracts capability allows complex systems to be built on Ethereum, while Bitcoin has a very limited native smart contract capability.
Can Ethereum seize the “store of value” narrative from Bitcoin?
This would be hard, given the network security Bitcoin can boast of.
Over the past few months, industry leaders Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum [ETH] are attracting the kind of institutional investment that would have been surreal just a few years ago. In fact, U.S Spot ETF flows revealed that Bitcoin and Ethereum have, since their inception, seen $57.293 billion and $13.678 billion in ETF inflows, respectively.
These figures are evidence of the mainstream adoption and legitimacy of the crypto asset class. Over the coming years, demand for BTC and ETH and other large-cap altcoins is likely to continue to grow.
Since June, the growth of Ethereum (in terms of price) has been faster than that of Bitcoin. Combined with the functionality for DeFi, smart contracts, dApps, and staking yield that Ethereum offers, can Ethereum flip Bitcoin by 2030 to become the face of crypto?
Can Ethereum flip Bitcoin by 2030? There’s a long way to go
Bitcoin began as an idea to solve the double-spending problem in digital money using the blockchain, secured by its miners. It is fundamentally the same, except it has grown into so much more in the minds of the masses.
It gained a foothold in the traditional world of finance as an inflation hedge, the notion championed by Strategy [MSTR] co-founder Michael Saylor. BTC is older and has the first-mover advantage in crypto, and is also the most secure network from a Proof of Work perspective.
Bitcoin acquired by treasury companies stood at 3.73 million BTC at press time or $438 billion. Ethereum treasury companies possessed 3.518 million ETH – Worth $16.18 billion.
This disparity in institutional demand and adoption, and the gap in ETF flows, served to showcase how entrenched Bitcoin is in the minds of investors. It has no direct competitor in the “store of value” department, while Ethereum faces stiff competition from other L1 blockchains such as Solana [SOL].
To flip Bitcoin by 2030, a deflationary ETH, extended Web3 adoption, and staking rewards would be some factors that must seize the narrative.
Source: ETH/BTC on TradingView
At the time of writing, the ETH/BTC chart showed how far away this scenario was. ETH/BTC was at 0.039. It had been in a severe downtrend from October 2022 to late April 2025. In recent weeks though, aided by the treasury plays in June and onwards, ETH/BTC has been trending upwards.
It would need to rally by 120% to reach the highs of December 2021. If achieved, and assuming Bitcoin prices don’t move from the $117k-mark, that would put ETH’s value at $16k. Bitcoin’s appreciation and an ETH/BTC reading similar to late 2021 would push Ethereum’s price beyond $16k.
And yet, even these highs were less than 0.1 on the ETH/BTC ratio. This is a sign of the sheer size of Bitcoin. It might be that Bitcoin would always be the Sun-sized centre of the crypto market, and Ethereum the largest planet in the system.