Metrics Highlight Market Optimism for Ethereum

Throughout 2024, the number of long-term Ethereum holders has steadily increased, while Bitcoin has seen a decline in this metric, according to IntoTheBlock.

This chart shows the percentage of long-term Bitcoin and Ether holders over the past year.

While the share of long-term Bitcoin decreased, the percentage of long-term ETH holders climbed, surpassing that of Bitcoin early in the year. pic.twitter.com/F7ghaSq66T

— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) December 29, 2024

The share of Ethereum holders keeping the asset for over a year rose from 59% in January to 75% by December. In contrast, Bitcoin’s long-term holders dropped from around 70% to 62% over the same period.

Bitcoin’s price has surged by more than 122% year-to-date, setting new all-time highs twice. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s value grew by 48.2%, as per CoinGecko.

Kaiko analysts attributed Ethereum’s slower growth to fund flows into Solana, driven by high transaction fees on Ethereum and the Q4 frenzy around meme coins. Additional pressure came from the absence of staking in newly launched ETH ETFs and their “lackluster” start compared to Bitcoin funds.

MN Trading founder and analyst Michaël van de Poppe suggested that Ethereum could strengthen against Bitcoin as early as January. A breakout above the 0.4 level in the ETH/BTC pair could trigger an altcoin rally within Ethereum’s ecosystem, he predicted.

As a reminder, CryptoQuant recently noted bullish signals for Ethereum.