The recent surge in fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) surrounding Ethereum has led to a shift towards Solana, causing the price of ETH in terms of BTC to reach its lowest point in over three years.
The growing divide between Bitcoin and Ether comes as bearish sentiment towards Ether increases and competing blockchains like Solana gain popularity.
Over the past week, Solana has experienced a 17% increase in value, while ETH has remained relatively stagnant. Some analysts interpret this as a movement away from ETH.
In a report from October 24th, Cointelegraph noted that Solana has seen a 600% surge against Ethereum since 2023, primarily driven by the mania surrounding memecoins.
The rise of Solana in comparison to Ethereum has sparked conversations about the possibility of Solana overtaking Ethereum’s market capitalization. However, Ethereum’s market cap currently sits at over $300 million, while Solana’s is just $82 million, according to CoinGecko.
Simultaneously, the ETH/BTC ratio has reached its lowest point since April 2021, falling to 0.037 on October 24th, according to TradingView. This decline in ratio is due to Ether’s continuous decline in price as Bitcoin recovers.
Since reaching a two-month high of $2,760 on October 21st, ETH has dropped by approximately 9%, falling below $2,500 on Thursday. On the other hand, Bitcoin has recovered most of its losses from the recent market retreat, reaching $68,820 during late trading on October 24th, according to CoinGecko.
To defend Ethereum against criticism, developers and advocates have stepped up. Core developer Eric Connor dismissed concerns about layer-2 user experiences, fragmented liquidity, and development speed in an X post on October 24th. He argued that Ethereum remains the leading smart contract platform, committed to true decentralization, and has gained significant institutional adoption and developer activity.
Independent trader Bob Loukas, who previously criticized Ethereum, admitted that the recent shift towards Solana is more about the repricing of economic activity and how people are currently utilizing layer-2 chains. He emphasized the distribution of value across the ecosystem.
Anthony Sassano, an Ethereum educator, suggested that most of the FUD surrounding Ethereum is linked to its underperformance. He stated in an X post on October 24th that these complaints seem to arise only when ETH is trading weakly compared to other assets, as price greatly influences sentiment.
Mert Mumtaz, the founder of Solana developer tools firm Helius, reiterated his support for the Ethereum ecosystem in an X post on October 25th.