Ethereum vs. Bitcoin: The Flippening Showdown You Can’t Miss! 🚀💰

by

Ah, the grand spectacle of the crypto world! Some call it an overturn, others an upending, but the more imaginative among us have dubbed it “the flippening.” Yes, dear reader, the notion that Ethereum’s market capitalization might one day overtake that of Bitcoin is the stuff of legends-or at least a rather amusing afternoon chat over tea.

Now, with ETH gallivanting over the $4,300 mark and eyeing its all-time high of $4,878 like a hungry dog eyeing a particularly juicy steak, one must ponder: could this flippening actually occur? đŸ€”

Will Ethereum Eventually Take the Crown from Bitcoin?

As it stands, Ethereum’s market cap is a respectable $500 billion, while Bitcoin lounges in its throne at a staggering $2.3 trillion-almost five times as much! Yet, the ever-optimistic Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin is strutting about with a twinkle in his eye, proclaiming that astonishing things are on the horizon.

“I think we’ll see some astonishing things in the next year or so,” Lubin declared on CNBC, as if he were predicting the next great British invasion of the music charts.

Lubin, in his July 30 CNBC tĂȘte-Ă -tĂȘte, pointed to the rise of publicly traded crypto treasury companies as a potential catalyst for this flippening. His own SharpLink Gaming (NASDAQ: SBET) treasury play is currently sitting on a veritable mountain of 521,939 ETH, worth more than $2 billion-enough to make even Scrooge McDuck raise an eyebrow.

However, not everyone is donning their rose-tinted spectacles. Many fund managers and investment professionals are shaking their heads in disbelief.

“As far as the ‘flippening’, we just don’t think it will happen,” said Jeff Embry, managing partner of crypto fund Globe 3 Capital, sounding rather like a schoolmaster scolding a wayward pupil. “ETH has too high a hill to climb to surpass BTC, and the drivers of what creates value for both should keep BTC in the lead.”

For those with a penchant for historical insight, the ETH/BTC trading pair offers a rather amusing tale. Back in the 2017 bull run, the ETH/BTC ratio was around 0.1475 BTC per ETH, meaning ETH was worth about 14.75% of BTC’s price at its peak. Fast forward to today, and the ratio has plummeted to a mere 0.03532 BTC per ETH-only 3.6% of BTC’s price. But fear not! There’s likely room for that ratio to trend upwards, which will surely amplify the delightful cacophony surrounding any potential flippening in the future. 🎉

“The spread ETH-BTC is now being aggressively bought since its lows in April 2025, and I believe it has some more room to go,” said Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner of crypto-focused Tellurian Capital, sounding like a fortune teller peering into a crystal ball. “This recovery has been magnified by the fact that a number of hedge funds were short the ETH-BTC spread and had to stop out of that position ahead of the large buying from new ETH treasury companies.”

Ethereum treasury companies, such as Tom Lee’s Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NASDAQ: BMNR), the reigning champion of publicly traded ETH holding companies with 833,133 ETH worth a staggering $3.5 billion, are fueling this appreciation. Lee, in a moment of bold prediction, recently forecasted a $16,000 price point for ETH, which could bring the asset closer to its 2017 record price ratio with Bitcoin. Talk about aiming for the stars! 🌟

Different Purpose and Supply Dynamics

Yet, dear reader, some of the fundamental aspects of the technology behind ETH that pique Wall Street’s interest might not be enough to propel it past BTC’s price.

“We would need a massively bullish case for RWAs and tokenised treasuries over the next five years, plus AI, gaming, sovereign infrastructures, all running on Ethereum,” noted Chris Thomas of multi-partner crypto advisory Lake Capital, sounding like a man with a plan. “But even on those numbers, we may only see a $30,000-$50,000 ETH price
 and at that point, we could argue that Bitcoin will be up another 7-10x.”

It’s crucial to remember that as ETH’s price rises, it’s entirely possible that Bitcoin will continue its upward trajectory as well. Ether’s supply dynamics are as different from Bitcoin’s renowned fixed supply as a cat is from a dog.

“In terms of price per ETH, it is unlikely to pass the price per Bitcoin,” said Steve Chen, founder of blockchain startup accelerator BAIK Ventures, sounding rather like a wise old owl. “Bitcoin’s total supply is capped at 21 million. ETH does not have a hard cap of total supply; there is some burning, but the outstanding amount of ETH is a huge number.”

According to CoinGecko, the current outstanding supply of ETH is a staggering 120 million tokens. Unlike Bitcoin’s 21 million fixed circulation, Ethereum has no hard cap on its supply. Instead, the Ethereum network burns transaction fees, known as gas, in its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Bitcoin fees, on the other hand, are rewarded to proof-of-work miners, who are likely to be found in a darkened room, surrounded by energy drinks and pizza boxes.

Also, the roles and purposes of BTC and ETH are as different as chalk and cheese, making an apples-to-apples comparison between the two disparate networks a rather Herculean task. That said, one can expect the BTC vs. ETH narrative and price wars to keep heating up like a kettle on the boil. Both will continue to be in high demand as crypto regulatory winds have shifted more favorably in 2025.

“BTC has the first mover advantage and remains the primary digital gold asset,” added Tellurian Capital’s Bonnefous, sounding like a sage dispensing wisdom. “Although I expect quite a bit more of a catch-up for ether, which had been oversold these last few months.”

Read More

2025-08-12 00:58