Ethereum vs. Bitcoin: Q3 Outlook Favors ETH — Here’s Why

• Ethereum has always come second to Bitcoin, the largest digital asset by market capitalization of $2.02 trillion.
• Ethereum is showing signs of outperforming BTC thanks to the Pectra upgrade, institutional inflows, and adoption in financial infrastructure.

Currently, Bitcoin (BTC) dominates the cryptocurrency market with a 64.9% share, resulting in a massive market capitalization of $2.02 trillion. In contrast, Ethereum (ETH) holds just 8.7% of the total $3.12 trillion market cap, which dipped slightly by 0.89% over the last 24 hours. But that picture might change as we move into Q3. Ethereum’s ecosystem is growing, especially with the Layer-2 solutions like Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism, which have seen a surge in consumer activity.

Ethereum is starting to show momentum, climbing nearly 40% and leaving Bitcoin’s 28.81% gains in the dust. It’s a strong comeback, especially considering ETH had nearly halved from its $3,334 opening in Q1. Its market share is slowly making a comeback too, rising toward the 10% mark after sinking to just 6.95% back on April 22. Around the same time, the ETH/BTC ratio hit its lowest point in five years, which also lined up with ETH bottoming out at $1,441 in mid-April.

However, by early May, things began to turn around. That ETH/BTC ratio jumped more than 25% from its low as Ethereum broke through the $2,000 barrier and surged to $2,878 by June 11. Since the middle of May, the ratio hasn’t moved dramatically but has been trending upward with higher lows, often a sign that larger players are gradually accumulating.

Institutional Inflows for ETH

Big money is moving into Ethereum. BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset managers, added a massive $750 million worth of ETH, bringing the total assets under management in its iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) to over $4.04 billion. That trust now holds about 1.677 million ETH. And it’s not just BlackRock, Ethereum ETFs have been pulling in steady capital, with inflows rising for six weeks in a row and eight of the last nine.

SharpLink Gaming also jumped in, adding 176,271 ETH, valued at roughly $463 million, to its treasury. Notably, more than 95% of that ETH is staked, helping secure the network while earning yield.

Analyst Ali Martinez highlighted a critical support zone between $2,368 and $2,445, noting that over 2.37 million wallets bought more than 65 million ETH in that price range. Meanwhile, whale activity is heating up. One whale borrowed $10 million in USDT to grab nearly 4,000 ETH at a price of $2,510 each. The number of wallets holding between 1,000 and 10,000 ETH has now jumped to a two-year high of 4,970.

The key support zone for #Ethereum lies between $2,368 and $2,445, where 2.37 million addresses accumulated over 65 million $ETH. pic.twitter.com/mRjBMImfnv

— Ali (@ali_charts) June 15, 2025

Despite this bullish accumulation, Ethereum has pulled back recently, dropping 13.60% over the past week and trading at $2,264 at the time of writing, down 0.42% in the last 24 hours.

The Pectra upgrade in May has also been a game-changer, delivering faster, cheaper, and more efficient transactions, which finally tackles some of Ethereum’s long-standing issues. As CNF recently reported, over 80% of all tokenized assets now run on Ethereum.

Its dominance in stablecoin transfers and gas fee generation makes it a solid long-term hold. Institutions have even started referring to Ethereum as “digital oil.” And if projections from the Etherealize group are anything to go by, ETH could not only break through the $8,000 level, but may eventually climb as high as $80,000 in the long term.