Ethereum has reached “one of its deepest undervaluation zones in years,” according to analysts at crypto asset manager Bitwise.
A note shared with Decrypt says the second-largest cryptocurrency has been “consistently underperforming” against Bitcoin since late 2022, with ETH/BTC values suffering as a result.
At the time of writing, 1 ETH buys 0.027 BTC—down 47% over the past 12 months, according to CoinGecko data.
But Bitwise Europe’s head of research, Andre Dragosch, argues Ethereum “is fundamentally mispriced relative to on-chain activity and adoption metrics.”
Growing interest in artificial intelligence, meme coins and the tokenization of real-world assets have been blamed for ETH’s disappointing performance.
“[These] areas benefit from lower transaction costs, leaving Ethereum’s often congested and expensive network at a disadvantage,” the note says.
Dragosch adds that the rise of Layer 2 scaling solutions “has fragmented activity across multiple ecosystems, limiting the value directly captured by Etheruem’s base layer.”
And to make matters worse, ETH’s “extensive use as a trading pair across the crypto ecosystem has made it susceptible to persistent downward pressure from arbitrage whenever its price rises.”
Nonetheless, Bitwise points to historical data that suggests Ether could be “poised for a potential rebound in February,” as it’s secured positive returns against BTC in seven of the past eight years.
Bitcoin has risen by 3.72% in the year to date. By contrast, Ether has plunged by 20% since 2025 began.
And while BTC hit a fresh all-time high above $109,000 last month, ETH is yet to surpass a record price of $4,891.70 set back in November 2021.
The divide widens further given Bitcoin’s currently 11% off its price peak, with Ether now trading at a 46% discount.
This too has been reflected in the performance of exchange-traded funds tracking ETH’s price.
Data from SoSoValue shows the total net assets in U.S. Bitcoin ETFs now stand at $115 billion—5.9% of this digital asset’s market cap.
The capital locked up in ETH ETFs is a mere $10.15 billion by comparison, which equates to just 3.1%.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
