What’s Causing the Return of Bearish Sentiment on ETH?

Author: Martin Young, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Baishui, Golden Finance

Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) around Ethereum has surged again as people have clearly turned to Solana, while the price of ETH in terms of BTC has fallen to its lowest level in three and a half years.

The widening gap between Bitcoin and Ethereum is due to the growing bearish sentiment towards the asset and the rise of competing blockchains such as Solana.

SOL has risen by about 17% in the past seven days, while ETH has basically stagnated, which some observers believe is a rotation of ETH.

On October 24, it was reported that the Solana price ratio to Ethereum has soared by about 600% since 2023, driven primarily by memecoin mania.

Solana’s rise to Ethereum has sparked discussions about its potential to reverse Ethereum’s market value. Still, with Ethereum’s current market value exceeding $300 million, according to Coingecko, and Solana’s market value at just $82 million, Ethereum still has a long way to go.

Meanwhile, the ETH/BTC ratio has fallen to its lowest level since April 2021, reaching 0.037 on October 24, according to TradingView, as Ethereum prices continue to retreat while Bitcoin prices recover.

Since hitting a two-month high of $2,760 on Monday, October 21, ETH has fallen by about 9%, falling below $2,500 on Thursday. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has recovered nearly all of its losses from this week’s market pullback, hitting $68,820 in late trading on Oct. 24, according to data from CoinGecko.

ETH/BTC ratio. Source: TradingView

Ethereum developers and supporters have been defending the blockchain, with one core developer making comments about the blockchain’s alleged “flaws.”

In an October 24 post, core developer Eric Connor refuted criticisms about Layer 2 user experience, fragmented liquidity, and development speed, arguing that Ethereum remains the leading smart contract platform committed to true decentralization, with significant institutional adoption and developer activity.

“I’ve always said Ethereum is a game that will take decades to develop, but it remains on the right path to becoming a real winner.”

Meanwhile, independent trader Bob Loukas admitted to being critical of Ethereum, saying, “What we’re seeing is more of just a repricing of where economic activity is and what people are using these [Layer 2] chains for ‘today’” as value is distributed across the ecosystem.

Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano said that Much of the FUD seems to be related to ETH’s poor performance.

“It seems that these complaints only exist when Ethereum is trading weakly relative to other assets — price drives sentiment,” he said in an Oct. 24 post.

Mert Mumtaz, founder of Solana developer tool company Helius, reiterated his support for the Ethereum ecosystem in an Oct. 25 post.