Ethereum has strongly underperformed Bitcoin over the past two weeks. As BTC has shot around 20% higher in the past 10 days alone, ETH has gained approximately 8%.

This trend is not isolated: almost all leading altcoins are underperforming Bitcoin. The severity of BTC’s spike to the upside has compressed gains in altcoins as all focus and capital is focused on Bitcoin.

While some think this will be a fixture of this cycle, a prominent crypto-asset analyst recently made the case for why Ethereum may outperform Bitcoin all this cycle.

Related Reading: Here’s Why Ethereum’s DeFi Market May Be Near A Bottom

How Ethereum Could Underperform BTC This Cycle

Qiao Wang, a prominent crypto-asset analyst, recently explained why there may be some credence to the sentiment that Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin this cycle:

“The pro-BTC argument goes: it took years for institutions to finally get onboard with the “digital gold” narrative. There’s no way they’ll get comfortable with ETH in this cycle. What this argument misses is that there’s also a significant % of the population who don’t get the “digital gold” narrative, but are more comfortable with the “tech platform” narrative that ETH represents.”

There’s a lot of ETH bearishness recently. I’m also of the view that ETH will underperform BTC in the next bull cycle. But only slightly. And I want to explore arguments for why this thesis may be wrong, ie, why ETH could outperform BTC.

— Qiao Wang (@QwQiao) October 27, 2020

He elaborated that from the standpoint of technology investors, Ethereum remains the best “index” bet in the cryptocurrency space. On the other hand, Bitcoin may be seen as a myopic bet on a digital store of value.

Wang did note, though, that he remains more bullish on Bitcoin. He is seemingly assigning a slightly higher probability to the scenario where BTC outperforms ETH this cycle than the other way around.

Related Reading: Tyler Winklevoss: A “Tsunami” of Capital Is Coming For Bitcoin

Don’t Fully Count Ethereum Out

While ETH has the potential to underperform BTC, that’s not to say that it will drop against the dollar. There is a lot going for Ethereum in the months and years ahead.

For one, it’s slowly become an institutional asset with institutional investors starting to dip their toes in the space.

Head of DTC Capital Spencer Noon noted earlier this year that institutions he talks to about DeFi are starting to allocate to Ethereum where they can. This comes as institutional service providers, such as Fidelity Investments, are expected to bolster their involvement in Ethereum.

Also, U.S. CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert said he is genuinely impressed with the innovation taking place in the Ethereum ecosystem. He added that if Bitcoin could be likened to the technology of email, Ethereum is more like the Internet.

Related Reading: 3 Bitcoin On-Chain Trends Show a Macro Bull Market Is Brewing

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Top Analyst Explains Why Ethereum Could Outperform Bitcoin This Cycle