Trailing returns: 1 to 10 years
Total and annualized returns for periods ending on the October 15, 2026 close (ETH $2,439.45, BTC $82,131.46).
| Period | ETH total | ETH per year | BTC total | BTC per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | −38.8% | −38.8% | −25.9% | −25.9% |
| 2 years | −6.4% | −3.3% | +22.5% | +10.7% |
| 3 years | +56.6% | +16.1% | +202.1% | +44.6% |
| 4 years | +91.3% | +17.6% | +330.7% | +44.1% |
| 5 years | −37.0% | −8.8% | +33.1% | +5.9% |
| 8 years | +1,092.7% | +36.3% | +1,175.3% | +37.5% |
| 10 years | +20,313.8% | +70.2% | +12,770.0% | +62.5% |
The pattern is clear: BTC leads over every window from 1 to 5 years, the two are nearly level over 8 years, and ETH leads over 10 years only because October 2016 caught it at about $12. Start dates matter more than anything else in an ETH vs BTC comparison, so be wary of any chart that picks one.
How often did ETH beat BTC? Rolling windows
To avoid cherry-picking a start date, we checked every possible start day since May 18, 2016 and asked whether ETH or BTC did better over the following 1, 2 and 4 years.
- 1-year holds: ETH beat BTC in 42% of windows (42% for start dates from 2020 on).
- 2-year holds: ETH beat BTC in 39% of windows (31% from 2020 on).
- 4-year holds: ETH beat BTC in 59% of windows, but only 37% for start dates from 2020 on.
The older 4-year windows favor ETH because they include its 2017 and 2021 surges. Since 2020, BTC has been the more reliable of the two for most holding periods.
Risk: volatility and bear-market drops
Over the last 365 days, annualized volatility of daily returns was about 61% for ETH and 44% for BTC. Across the full history since 2016 it was 93% and 68%. The two move together: the correlation of daily returns was 0.91 over the last year (0.71 over the full period), and ETH moved about 1.26 times as much as BTC on a typical day. Holding both diversifies less than many people expect.
| Episode | ETH drop | ETH dates | BTC drop | BTC dates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 bear | −94.0% | Jan 13 → Dec 14, 2018 | −83.8% | Dec 16, 2017 → Dec 15, 2018 |
| 2021–22 bear | −79.4% | Nov 8, 2021 → Jun 18, 2022 | −76.7% | Nov 8, 2021 → Nov 21, 2022 |
| 2025–26 decline | −67.6% | Aug 22, 2025 → Jun 25, 2026 | −53.1% | Oct 6, 2025 → Jun 30, 2026 |
| Today vs record close | −49.5% | record $4,831.24 (Aug 22, 2025) | −34.1% | record $124,720.09 (Oct 6, 2025) |
Peak-to-trough daily closes on Coinbase. ETH fell further than BTC in every episode. For every ETH bear market and how long recovery took, see the ETH drawdown history.
DCA: $100 a month into ETH vs BTC
Buying $100 on the first day of every month, valued at the October 15, 2026 close.
| Start | Invested | ETH value | BTC value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2018 | $10,600 | $46,431 (+338%) | $53,546 (+405%) |
| Jan 2020 | $8,200 | $20,069 (+145%) | $23,453 (+186%) |
| Jan 2021 | $7,000 | $7,898 (+13%) | $13,421 (+92%) |
| Jan 2022 | $5,800 | $6,474 (+12%) | $11,158 (+92%) |
| Jan 2024 | $3,400 | $3,190 (−6%) | $3,749 (+10%) |
| Jan 2025 | $2,200 | $2,184 (−1%) | $2,123 (−3%) |
BTC came out ahead for every start year from 2018 to 2024; a 2025 start is roughly a draw. A 50/50 split rebalanced every January 1 would have turned $1 into $5.91 from January 2018 (ETH alone $3.21, BTC alone $6.09) and into $17.99 from January 2020 (ETH alone $18.74, BTC alone $11.45). Try your own numbers in the ETH DCA simulator.
Why ETH and BTC behave differently
- Supply rules. Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million coins. Ether has no fixed cap; new ETH is issued to validators, and part of every transaction fee is burned under EIP-1559, so net supply rises or falls with network use (you can watch it live on ultrasound.money).
- What it’s for. BTC is mostly held as a store of value. ETH pays for computation on Ethereum and secures it through staking, so its price is tied more to DeFi, stablecoin and app activity, and to competition from other chains and layer 2s.
- Yield. Since the Merge in September 2022, ETH can be staked for a few percent a year in new ETH, which the price-only numbers on this page leave out. Compare current rates in Lido vs Rocket Pool vs Coinbase staking. BTC has no native staking.
- Risk profile. ETH is smaller and more volatile, so it tends to rise more in strong markets and fall more in weak ones, as the tables above show.
For a plain-English explanation of the two networks, read Ethereum vs Bitcoin: the actual difference.
What this means for holders
- Don’t judge ETH vs BTC from one chart. The start date can flip the winner.
- Size ETH for a 70–90% drop. It has fallen further than BTC in every bear market on record here.
- If you hold both, rebalancing once a year has historically kept results between the two, without needing to guess the winner.
- Watch the ETH/BTC ratio rather than only the dollar price if you’re deciding between them.
- Check the risks in Is Ethereum a safe investment? before buying either.
Download the data
License: The tables, chart and CSV on this page are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Share and adapt them for any purpose, including commercially, with credit (for example “GrowYourEthereum, ETH vs BTC Returns & Ratio Data, CC BY 4.0”) and a link to the license. Raw closes come from Coinbase Exchange’s public API; Coinbase’s terms apply to that raw feed.
Methodology
- Data: Coinbase Exchange daily candles (UTC days) for ETH-USD, BTC-USD and ETH-BTC, fetched October 16, 2026. Comparisons start May 18, 2016, the first ETH-USD day on Coinbase, and end with the October 15, 2026 close.
- Returns use daily closes only. Volatility is the standard deviation of daily log returns × √365. Correlation and beta use the same daily log returns.
- The ratio is ETH-USD ÷ BTC-USD; Coinbase’s own ETH-BTC market matches it to within 0.03% on a typical day. Ratio highs and lows quoted on this page are ETH-BTC market closes.
- Prices only: no fees, spreads, staking rewards or taxes. Other exchanges and aggregators will differ slightly; for example, CoinGecko lists BTC’s all-time high as $126,080 (October 6, 2025, intraday) versus a $124,720.09 record daily close on Coinbase.
ETH vs BTC FAQ
Has ETH or BTC performed better?
It depends almost entirely on the start date. From May 18, 2016 (the start of Coinbase’s ETH-USD data) to October 15, 2026, ETH rose about 185-fold and BTC about 180-fold, so they are roughly tied (about 65% a year each). Over the last 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years, BTC did clearly better; over 10 years, ETH did better because it started from a much smaller base.
Is ETH or BTC better for the long term?
Nobody knows, and the data cuts both ways. In rolling 4-year windows since 2016, ETH beat BTC 59% of the time, but only 37% of the time for 4-year windows starting in 2020 or later. BTC has been less volatile and fell less in every bear market measured here. ETH has a higher-risk, higher-dispersion profile. Many long-term holders own both rather than betting on one.
What is the ETH/BTC ratio and what is it now?
ETH/BTC is the price of one ether measured in bitcoin. It closed at 0.0297 on Coinbase on October 15, 2026, meaning one ETH bought about 0.03 BTC. When the ratio rises, ETH is outperforming BTC; when it falls, BTC is outperforming.
What was the highest ETH/BTC ratio ever?
On Coinbase’s ETH-BTC market, the highest daily close was 0.15017 on June 12, 2017. Today’s 0.0297 is about 80% below that peak. The lowest closes since then were 0.01639 (September 6, 2019) and 0.01805 (April 21, 2025); news reports cited intraday lows near 0.018 in April 2025.
Is ETH more volatile than BTC?
Yes. Annualized volatility of daily returns over the last 365 days was about 61% for ETH and 44% for BTC (93% vs 68% over the full history since 2016). ETH’s daily returns moved with BTC’s with a correlation of 0.91 over the last year, and ETH tended to move about 1.26 times as much as BTC on a given day.
Did ETH or BTC fall more in bear markets?
ETH fell more every time: −94% vs −84% in 2018, −79% vs −77% in 2021–22, and −68% vs −53% in the 2025–26 decline (peak-to-trough daily closes on Coinbase). On October 15, 2026, ETH was 49.5% below its record close and BTC 34.1% below its own.
Would dollar-cost averaging into ETH or BTC have done better?
Buying $100 on the first of every month into BTC beat the same plan in ETH for every start year we tested from 2018 to 2024. Only a January 2025 start was close, with both slightly negative. Past results are not a forecast, and fees, staking rewards and taxes are not included.
Can I reuse this ETH vs BTC data?
Yes. The tables, chart and downloadable CSV are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Credit “GrowYourEthereum, ETH vs BTC Returns & Ratio Data, CC BY 4.0” and link to this page. The raw daily closes come from Coinbase Exchange’s public API, and Coinbase’s terms apply to that raw feed.
Sources
- Coinbase Exchange API: product candles (ETH-USD, BTC-USD, ETH-BTC daily data)
- CoinGecko: Bitcoin price and all-time high
- Cointelegraph (Apr 9, 2025): ETH/BTC at a five-year low of 0.018
- CryptoSlate (Apr 22, 2025): ETH/BTC ratio hits five-year low
- ethereum.org: The Merge (proof of stake)
- ethereum.org: Gas and fees (EIP-1559 base-fee burn)
- ethereum.org: Staking
- Bitcoin Wiki: Controlled supply (21 million cap)
- ultrasound.money: live ETH supply and burn dashboard
Educational data page. Not financial, tax or legal advice. Past performance does not predict future results. GrowYourEthereum is independent and not affiliated with Coinbase or any exchange. Figures computed from Coinbase Exchange data on October 16, 2026. This page and CSV: CC BY 4.0.