While crypto has long been highly affected by the broader financial market, the price of Ethereum (ETH) appears especially impacted by its movements.
According to recently published data from IntoTheBlock, the correlation between ETH and several traditional market indexes is now far higher than those between its larger rival, Bitcoin (BTC), and the same markets.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stocks
The firm’s figures show a correlation coefficient of 0.7 between ETH and the DAX – a stock index tracking 40 over the largest and most liquid German companies traded on the Frankfurt exchange. The equivalent correlation for BTC is 0.63.
A larger discrepancy is found with both the S&P 500 and tech-focused Nasdaq 100. ETH’s correlations to both indexes are 0.77 and 0.7 respectively, versus Bitcoin’s 0.56 and 0.44 correlations.
Meanwhile, both digital assets boast negative correlations with the US dollar Index, though ETH’s correlation is much stronger than BTC’s, boasting -0.61 and -0.33 correlations respectively.
“The correlation of ETH to traditional markets like the Nasdaq 100 is currently significantly higher than that of BTC,” wrote IntoTheBlock to Twitter on Wednesday.
What About Bitcoin ETFs?
The trend may seem ironic, given that its Bitcoin (BTC) that was recently approved to trade U.S. stock exchanges in the form of several spot ETFs in January.
The event has enabled roughly $12.5 billion worth of inflows to the asset through the new investment vehicles, which provide access to the asset previously unavailable to many institutional funds.
By contrast, Ethereum’s prospects of receiving approval for a U.S.-listed spot ETF in the near future grow bleaker by the day. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas now places the likelihood of a May approval at 25% and is uncertain that the crypto industry will even fight back against regulators if the product is rejected.
In comments shared with CryptoPotato, crypto fund manager Bitwise has revealed that financial advisors understand Bitcoin and Ethereum as having different roles in a portfolio.
“Advisors find it helpful when we explain that BTC can be contemplated as an allocation similar to gold and ETH as an allocation similar to a high-growth tech stock,” said Bitwise analyst Juan Leon in November.
Since the approvals, ETH has steadily lost ground against BTC, with the ETH/BTC ratio declining from 0.06 on January 13 to 0.049 today.
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