Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin just 15% of the time since its launch

Ethereum has only outperformed Bitcoin for 15% of all trading days since its launch almost a decade ago, according to analysts.

Since Ether (ETH) began trading in mid-2015, it has underperformed against Bitcoin (BTC) 85% of the time, analyst James Check said in an April 8 X post.

Data shared by Check shows that Ether significantly outperformed Bitcoin in its early years from mid-2015 to around mid-2017, and it had two short periods in late 2019 and early 2020 when the ETH to BTC ratio was in Etherโ€™s favor.

However, Bitcoin has outperformed Ether for the past five years.

ETH/BTC profitable days. Source: James Check

The ETH/BTC ratio, which shows the price of Ether in terms of Bitcoin, fell to a five-year low of 0.018 on April 9, according to TradingView.ย 

The last time the ratio fell below its current level was December 2019, when ETH crashed to $125 while Bitcoin was trading at around $7,000.ย 

Ether has wiped out seven years of gains, plummeting a further 10% over the past 24 hours to under $1,450, below its 2018 market cycle peak.

ETH fell to $1,400 in early trading on April 9, according to CoinGecko. Comparatively, Bitcoin lost 6% on the day in a fall to $75,000, which is still 275% higher than its peak during the bull market seven years ago.

Ethereum backers air concern of โ€œstagnationโ€

Ethereum advocates have aired concerns about the networkโ€™s growth as the token struggled to gain traction earlier this year when Bitcoin hit a new price peak.

โ€œI love Ethereum. However, itโ€™s time to face reality: Ethereum has had [around] the same number of active addresses for the past 4 years.โ€ Web3 researcher Stacy Muur posted to X on April 8.

Related: Ethereum price falls to 2-year low, but pro traders still have hope

However, other researchers noted that most of the new addresses are on Ethereum layer-2 scaling networks, which have surged in terms of value locked onchain over the past couple of years, according to L2beat.ย 

While most long-term ETH investors are now holding at a loss, technical indicators such as fractal patterns seen in 2018 and 2022 suggest that the asset is approaching oversold levels and a bottom could be near the $1,000 level, according to Cointelegraph analysis.ย 

Magazine: 3 reasons Ethereum could turn a corner: Kain Warwick, X Hall of Flame