Bitcoin Preferred Over Ethereum by Peter Schiff despite Declining Bitcoin Dominance
In a significant shift in the cryptocurrency market, Ethereum's market share has risen to 13%, marking an increase of 3.34% as of August 2025. This surge has led to a corresponding decrease in Bitcoin's dominance, signaling a rotation of capital from Bitcoin into Ethereum and other altcoins.
Factors Driving Ethereum's Rise
Several interrelated factors are driving this trend. One of the major drivers is Wall Street's increased adoption of blockchain and tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on Ethereum. According to Fundstrat, Ethereum currently holds a commanding 55% market share in the $25 billion RWA tokenization sector, with most stablecoins and Wall Street projects being built on Ethereum’s network.
Regulatory developments also favor Ethereum projects. For instance, the GENIUS Act stablecoin regulations and the US SEC’s "Project Crypto" aim to modernize the regulatory framework toward digital assets and blockchain finance, encouraging Ethereum-based financial products and innovation.
Ethereum's expanding utility and resurgence in decentralized finance (DeFi) are also factors. Although some "fun" use cases migrated to cheaper blockchains, Ethereum retains substantial large-scale whale activity, liquidity, and is indispensable for stablecoins and DeFi recovery, boosting its demand and price relative to Bitcoin.
The strong performance in the ETH/BTC ratio in 2025, with ETH trading at 0.039 BTC—the highest level of the year—signals a shift in market sentiment favoring ETH. ETH gained $1,000 in one week amid BTC consolidation, reflecting growing confidence in Ethereum's potential.
Anticipation of Ethereum spot ETFs approval is fuelling increased inflows and price growth. Positive expectation around regulatory approval of such investment products supports higher ETH prices and market share.
Moreover, Ethereum is gaining in perpetual futures market share as well. Although Bitcoin perps still dominate, Ethereum’s share of futures open interest (OI) at over 23% indicates growing trader and investor engagement.
Bitcoin's Decreasing Dominance
Bitcoin's decreasing dominance is partly because its role remains more focused on being a store of value and does not benefit as directly from the recent trends in tokenization, DeFi, and Layer-1 blockchain development that favor Ethereum. Additionally, Ethereum’s adaptability to financialization and regulatory frameworks appears to position it better for the evolving digital finance ecosystem.
Although Bitcoin still has a larger market share than Ethereum, the decreasing gap indicates increased competition as capital flows become diversified. A month ago, Bitcoin controlled 63.9% of the total crypto market, Ethereum was at 9.7%, and other assets were at 26.4%. The drop comes after Bitcoin reached a yearly dominance high of 65.1% on June 27, 2025. Other cryptocurrencies combined hold 28%, up 1.57%.
The current dominance level shows a quick decline in recent days. The lowest Bitcoin dominance level in the last year was 53.9%, occurring in December 2024. The dominance of Bitcoin over the last week was 61.2%. The current market share of Bitcoin is 59.1%, a decrease of 4.91% compared to the previous month.
This shift in the market dynamics is a significant development, indicating a maturing and diversifying cryptocurrency landscape. As Ethereum continues to gain ground, the competition between the two giants of the crypto world is expected to intensify, offering exciting opportunities for investors and developers alike.
[1] Fundstrat Global Advisors, "Ethereum's Institutional Integration: The Biggest Macro Trade for the Next 10-15 Years," August 2025. [2] CoinDesk, "Ethereum Regains DeFi Dominance as Bitcoin Sheds Users," August 2025. [3] Bloomberg, "Ethereum Spot ETFs: What's Behind the Growing Anticipation?," August 2025. [4] Skew, "Ethereum's Futures Market Share on the Rise," August 2025.
- The surge in Ethereum's market share, currently at 13%, is largely driven by Wall Street's increased adoption of blockchain and tokenized real-world assets (RWA) on Ethereum's network, where it holds a 55% market share.
- Regulatory developments, such as the GENIUS Act stablecoin regulations and Project Crypto, aim to modernize the digital asset and blockchain finance regulatory framework, encouraging Ethereum-based financial products and innovation.
- Ethereum's expanding utility and resurgence in decentralized finance (DeFi) have boosted its demand and price relative to Bitcoin, with substantial whale activity, liquidity, and being indispensable for stablecoins and DeFi recovery.
- The strong performance in the ETH/BTC ratio in 2025, with ETH trading at 0.039 BTC, signaled a shift in market sentiment favoring ETH and a growth in confidence in Ethereum's potential.
- Anticipation of Ethereum spot ETFs approval is fueling increased inflows and price growth, with positive expectations around regulatory approval supporting higher ETH prices and market share.
- Ethereum is gaining in the perpetual futures market share as well, with an over 23% share of futures open interest (OI) indicating growing trader and investor engagement.
- Bitcoin's decreasing dominance is partly due to its role being more focused on being a store of value, while Ethereum benefits more from recent trends in tokenization, DeFi, and Layer-1 blockchain development that favor Ethereum, leading to increased competition and a maturing, diversifying cryptocurrency landscape.
