Ethereum gains momentum: what is driving ETH growth and investor interest
Since the beginning of summer 2026, Ethereum (ETH) has outperformed Bitcoin in both price performance and the amount of institutional capital flowing into investment products linked to the asset. Since the beginning of June, Ethereum's price has risen about 25%, while Bitcoin has gained only 5% over the same period.
Ethereum's improving performance has coincided with active efforts by developers to introduce fundamental changes to the blockchain, as well as attempts to make ETH more attractive to major market participants.
Over the 14 weeks ending September 14, Ethereum posted a higher percentage gain than Bitcoin in nine of them. Bitcoin outperformed Ethereum in only five of those 14 weeks. ETH has remained above $2,500, while Bitcoin has been consolidating around $77,000.
Ethereum posted its strongest performance in August, gaining more than 33% over the month. By comparison, Bitcoin rose by around 23% over the same period.
Ethereum (ETH) pulls ahead of Bitcoin
The gains of recent months have led to a technical rebound in the ETH/BTC pair after almost ten months of nearly uninterrupted decline. Between August 2025 and June 2026, Ethereum lost almost 40% against Bitcoin.
This decline was met with criticism from both industry experts and within the Ethereum community itself. The discussion focused on the blockchain's fundamental characteristics and its economic model.
Since the beginning of 2026, several prominent industry participants have argued that Ethereum's existing model, which combines the burning* of ETH and staking*, may not support token price growth effectively enough.
* Token burning is a mechanism in which part of the issued cryptocurrency is permanently removed from circulation. Tokens are usually sent to a special address that cannot be accessed, making it impossible to use them again. In Ethereum, part of transaction fees is automatically burned, reducing the amount of ETH in circulation and, under certain conditions, potentially slowing the growth of the coin's supply.
* Staking is a mechanism for participating in the operation of a blockchain based on the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm. Cryptocurrency holders stake their coins, helping the network validate transactions and maintain security. In return, participants receive rewards.
Ethereum developers had already been working on the network's development at the beginning of the year. Still, discussions around large-scale changes intensified, in particular amid criticism of the blockchain's fundamental characteristics and economic model. During the same period, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin began speaking about the need for more substantial transformations that would affect the network's core operating principles.
At the same time, Buterin's stance toward Bitcoin also began to change. While he had previously repeatedly criticized the first cryptocurrency for its technological limitations and inefficiency, his recent comments about Bitcoin have become noticeably more positive.
This is particularly noteworthy against the backdrop of Ethereum's previous prolonged decline against Bitcoin. During the period when ETH began losing significant ground to BTC, Buterin's rhetoric was almost the opposite of what it is today: he pointed to Bitcoin's technological shortcomings. He suggested that Ethereum could eventually surpass the first cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Now, his more positive assessment of Bitcoin has coincided with discussions of major changes within Ethereum itself.
Institutional capital returns to Ethereum (ETH)
ETH's positive price performance has been accompanied by changes in capital flows into exchange-traded ETF funds* based on Ethereum and Bitcoin.
* ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) is an investment fund whose shares can be bought and sold on a traditional stock exchange. The value of an ETF is usually linked to a particular asset, index, or group of assets. Cryptocurrency ETFs let investors gain exposure to changes in the value of digital assets through a regular brokerage account, without buying cryptocurrency directly, creating a wallet, or storing private keys.
Since the beginning of 2026, Bitcoin ETFs have collectively recorded approximately $1.5 billion in outflows. Ethereum ETFs, by contrast, had posted net inflows of more than $1 billion by mid-September.
August was particularly notable for Ethereum. During the month, capital inflows into ETH ETFs exceeded $3.5 billion, reaching their highest level since mid-2025.
This period also coincided with the appearance of a so-called "golden cross"* on the ETH/BTC ratio chart. In mid-August, the 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day moving average.
* "Golden cross" is a technical signal on a price chart that may indicate a strengthening upward trend. It forms when two moving averages — lines that show the average price of an asset over a certain period and help smooth out short-term fluctuations — cross. A classic "golden cross" occurs when the 50-day moving average, which reflects the asset's average price over the previous 50 days, rises above the 200-day moving average, calculated using prices over the previous 200 days. This crossover means the price has recently been rising faster than it has over the longer term.
In the market, this signal is traditionally considered bullish: short-term upward momentum begins to outpace the longer-term trend, which may indicate conditions for further sustained growth.
On the ETH/BTC ratio chart, the "golden cross" formed in mid-August. In the Ethereum-to-dollar pair, a similar signal appeared only at the end of August. On the Bitcoin chart, the "golden cross" formed on September 8.
What the market expects from Ethereum (ETH)
According to Tom Lee, head of BitMine, the largest corporate holder of Ethereum, ETH remains the "best-performing macro asset of the quarter," outperforming, among other assets, the major U.S. stock market index, the S&P 500*.
* S&P 500 is one of the best-known U.S. stock market indices. It tracks the performance of shares of approximately 500 of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies from various sectors of the economy. The index is often used as a benchmark for assessing the overall state of the U.S. stock market and comparing the performance of other asset classes, including gold, bonds, and cryptocurrencies.
Lee believes Ethereum's higher returns than other macro assets could encourage institutional investors to increase their exposure to the cryptocurrency market. He made the statement in a press release after the company made another cryptocurrency purchase in early September.
BitMine remains the largest publicly traded holder of Ethereum and ranks second among corporate cryptocurrency holders by the volume of accumulated assets, behind Michael Saylor's Strategy.
The company has accumulated more than 5.9 million ETH. At the current exchange rate, this amounts to about $14.5 billion. BitMine has staked around 5 million ETH, expecting additional returns.
As for Ethereum's future price performance, cryptocurrency market participants are predominantly considering positive scenarios for the coming months.
On the prediction market* Polymarket, in the market dedicated to what price ETH will reach by the beginning of October, most bets are concentrated in the $2,300–$2,700 range. Trading volume for this event exceeds $2 million.
* Prediction market is a platform where participants bet on whether a particular event will occur or what its outcome will be. For example, users can predict whether a central bank will change its interest rate, which film will win a major movie award, or who will win a sporting competition. Special contracts are created for each possible outcome, and participants buy and sell them. Their price changes depending on demand: the more participants believe that a particular outcome is likely, the higher the price of the corresponding contract usually becomes. As a result, prices on such platforms can reflect the collective expectations of participants regarding the probability of future events.
In another Polymarket market, where participants predict Ethereum's price by the beginning of January, trading volume has exceeded $14 million. There, most bets are concentrated on a scenario in which ETH trades above $2,750.