Ethereum’s outlook has been improving its case. After a prolonged period of 
underperformance and skepticism, the network is starting to exhibit signs of 
renewed structural and fundamental strength. While BTC continues to anchor the 
market as the primary store of value and digital gold, conditions are emerging 
that could allow ETH to outperform BTC over the coming period. Why The 
Ethereum Narrative Is Gaining Strength Ethereum has been seen outperforming 
Bitcoin. In a recent post on X, Walter Bloomberg revealed that Standard 
Chartered says that the ETH outlook has improved, and now ETH might outperform 
BTC, citing rising institutional demand and stronger fundamental positioning 
across key on-chain sectors. Related Reading: Altcoin Season In Q1? Bitcoin, 
Ethereum Breakdown Maps Out Performance While weakness in BTC has weighed on 
the broader crypto market, ETH has continued to benefit from institutional- 
driven demand, and its dominance in stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi), 
and real-world assets (RWA) tokenization. Standard Chartered also points to 
the increased throughput and potential US regulatory clarity that it could 
provide additional upside. In terms of valuation, the bank forecasts ETH at 
$7,500 this year and $30,000 by 2029, reflecting the expectations of sustained 
network growth. The Co-founder of PinkBrains_io, a DeFi Creator Studio, 
DefiIgnas, has highlighted that Ethereum could outperform Bitcoin this year, 
and the reason is roadmap execution. While BTC will likely keep facing 
recurring waves of quantum FUD into 2026, ETH has a clear roadmap to prepare 
for future cryptographic risks. Furthermore, ETH is actually scaling. Gas 
limits on layer 1 keep rising, and zkEVMs will get full production readiness, 
making ETH cheap and fast enough for high-value transactions, while layer 2s 
will handle most of the trading and high-frequency activity. Related Reading: 
Bitcoin And Ethereum Market Structure Points To Crypto Winter – Details These 
upgrades are incremental, which means there&#8217;s no breaking news moment for ETH, 
but progress is happening fast. Early in the cycle, a lot of Degens loaded up 
on ETH before the bull run, but many got disillusioned and sold their ETH for 
BTC. &#8220;It would be fun to see the playbook reverse higher,&#8221; DefiIgnas noted. A 
Different Liquidity Cycle Than Previous Bull Markets Crypto liquidity quality 
witnessed a change in 2025. A technical analyst and show host of Crypto 
Banter, Kyledoops, reported that Wintermute noted that capital in 2025 stopped 
rotating broadly across the market. Instead, liquidity is concentrated into 
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a small group of large-cap tokens. As a result, the 
long-anticipated wave of altcoin-wide liquidity never really arrived. 
Meanwhile, the rise of spot ETFs and crypto treasury vehicles created a new, 
highly structured inflow channel that funneled flow into the top of the 
market. These vehicles break the crypto&#8217;s oldest playbooks. Price action is no 
longer driven by broad market expansion. It’s driven by where new liquidity 
can actually enter. Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com

Ethereum Outlook Has Improved, And It Could Outperform Bitcoin – Here’s What To Know

XRP trades back above $2, and soaring institutional investor flows suggest the 
altcoin’s rally is just getting started.

XRP tops $2 as TradFi piles in: Do charts predict new highs in 2026?

On Wednesday, the Sui blockchain is grappling with a mainnet outage tied to a 
consensus malfunction impacting validators networkwide, bringing block 
production to a standstill and leaving transactions frozen in place. So far, 
the chain has been offline for nearly three hours, after going down just 
before 10 a.m. Eastern time. Another Stress Test for […]

From Blocks to Standstill: Sui Mainnet Outage Freezes Onchain Activity

Bitcoin (BTC) surged sharply this week, surpassing the $96,000 mark as renewed 
institutional demand and easing inflation concerns boosted sentiment across 
crypto markets. Related Reading: Dogecoin Bulls Don’t Celebrate Too Early: 
This Level Still Must Fall The action followed a strong inflow into U.S. spot 
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and a softer-than-feared U.S. Consumer 
Price Index (CPI) report, which reduced expectations of aggressive interest 
rate tightening by the Federal Reserve. The rally ended a prolonged 
consolidation phase that had kept Bitcoin trading sideways for more than a 
month. As prices broke through key resistance levels near $94,000–$95,000, 
short sellers were forced to close positions, adding further momentum to the 
upside. BTC&#8217;s price records important gains on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD 
on Tradingview Bitcoin ETF Inflows Signal Institutional Return U.S. spot 
Bitcoin ETFs recorded $753.7 million in net inflows on Tuesday, the largest 
single-day total since October. Fidelity’s FBTC led with $351 million, 
followed by Bitwise’s BITB with $159 million and BlackRock’s IBIT with $126 
million, according to data from SoSoValue. The surge suggests institutional 
investors are rotating back into crypto-linked products after year-end 
portfolio adjustments and tax-related selling weighed on the market in late 
2025. Ether-focused ETFs also saw renewed interest, with $130 million in net 
inflows across five products. Bitcoin rose around 3% following the data, 
trading near $94,600 at the time, while Ethereum gained more than 6% to around 
$3,320. Broader crypto markets followed, lifting total market capitalization 
above $3.3 trillion. Inflation Data Supports Risk Assets The latest U.S. CPI 
report showed inflation holding steady at 2.7% year-on-year, largely in line 
with expectations. The absence of an inflation surprise reduced fears of 
further rate hikes and reinforced views that the Federal Reserve could pivot 
toward rate cuts later in the year. Lower real-rate expectations typically 
support risk assets, including cryptocurrencies, by reducing the opportunity 
cost of holding non-yielding assets, such as Bitcoin. U.S. equities also 
advanced, suggesting the crypto rally was part of a broader shift in risk 
sentiment rather than an isolated move. Short Liquidations Add Fuel to the 
Rally As Bitcoin surged past $96,000, bearish positions were wiped out. Data 
from Coinglass shows more than $290 million in Bitcoin short positions were 
liquidated within 24 hours, compared with about $24 million in long 
liquidations. Across the broader cryptocurrency market, short liquidations 
totaled close to $700 million. Strong spot buying, rising open interest, and 
technical breakouts contributed to the move. Bitcoin is now testing former 
resistance levels as support, with chart patterns indicating a possible 
continuation toward the $105,000–$110,000 range if momentum persists. Related 
Reading: Bitcoin’s New Power Buyers: Companies Bought 3 Times What Miners 
Produced While short-term consolidation remains possible near the 
$98,000–$100,000 zone, sustained ETF inflows, reduced selling pressure from 
long-term holders, and continued corporate accumulation suggest underlying 
demand remains firm. Cover image from ChatGPT, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

BTC Breaks Higher as Record Bitcoin ETF Inflows Trigger Wave of Bearish Liquidations

The company’s move closer to artificial intelligence and high-performance 
computing followed many others repurposing some of their infrastructure away 
from mining crypto.

Cryptocurrency price in GBP