Ethereum’s prospects are improving. After a long period of impoverished performance and skepticism, the network is showing signs of renewed structural and fundamental strength. While BTC continues to anchor the market as the primary store of value and digital gold, conditions are emerging that could allow ETH to outperform BTC in the coming period.
Why the Ethereum narrative is gaining strength
Ethereum has been observed to perform better than Bitcoin. In recent post in October, Walter Bloomberg revealed that Standard Chartered says ETH’s prospects have improved and ETH is now poised to outperform BTC, citing growing institutional demand and a stronger fundamental position in key on-chain sectors.
Although BTC’s weakness affected the broader picture crypto market, ETH continues to benefit from institutionally driven demand and its dominance in stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi), and real-world asset tokenization (RWA).
Standard Chartered also points to increased capacity and potential regulatory transparency in the US, which could provide additional benefits. In terms of valuation, the bank forecasts ETH to be $7,500 this year and $30,000 in 2029, reflecting expectations network growth.
Co-founder of PinkBrains_io, a studio of DeFi creators, DefiIgnas highlighted that Ethereum may outperform Bitcoin this year, and the reason is the implementation of the roadmap. While BTC will likely continue to face recurring waves of quantum FUD through 2026, ETH has a clear roadmap to prepare for future crypto threats.
Moreover, ETH actually scales. Layer 1 gas limits continue to augment and zkEVMs will become fully production ready, making ETH low-cost and speedy enough for high-value transactions, while Layers 2 will handle most transactions and high-frequency transactions activity.
Related reading: Bitcoin and Ethereum Market Structure Point to Crypto Winter – Details
These improvements are incremental, meaning there is no breaking news moment for ETH, but progress is happening quickly. At the beginning of the cycle, many Degens loaded ETH before the bull run, but many became disillusioned and sold their ETH for BTC. “It would be nice to see the reverse in the textbook higher– DefiIgnas noticed.
A different liquidity cycle than previous bull markets
Cryptocurrency liquidity quality has changed in 2025. Technical analyst and host of Crypto Banter, Kyledoops, reported that Wintermute noted that in 2025, capital no longer traded widely in the market. Instead, liquidity is concentrated in Bitcoin, Ethereum and a compact group of large-cap tokens. As a result, the long-awaited wave of liquidity across the altcoin never actually arrived.
Meanwhile, augment spot ETFs and crypto treasuries created a fresh, highly structured inflow channel that drove flows to the top of the market. These vehicles break the oldest cryptocurrency textbooks. Price action is no longer driven by broad market expansion. It depends on where fresh liquidity may actually emerge.
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
